Surrounded by lush mountains and clear waters, living in what felt like a classical-style residence nestled within the forest, Luo Cheng found that he had slept exceptionally well that night.
As an ordinary person at the peak of the Body Refining stage, his stamina was decent. But after walking so far during the day to find a suitable place to set up his portable house, he had still expended a lot of energy. Now that he was staying in a house with complete living facilities, a comfortable environment, and, most importantly, a place that completely belonged to him, he could soak in a hot bath and sleep soundly. Waking up in the morning, he felt especially refreshed and at ease.
He suspected that it was because the spiritual energy in the wild was far more abundant than in the city. Combined with the sense of security the house provided, it allowed him to relax and recover so well through the night.
Luo Cheng strongly suspected that in a place where the world’s spiritual energy was this abundant, even someone with ordinary aptitude like him would have a much easier time stepping onto the path of cultivation and opening his spiritual sight. No wonder that once cultivators began their training, they rarely ventured into the city except to restock supplies or seek occasional entertainment. Even without a portable house, they would rather camp out in the wild.
After resting for the night in the portable house, he stored all the various items he had previously purchased but didn’t currently need—either in the fridge and freezer in the kitchen or in the temporary storage room in the basement. Then, Luo Cheng sorted through his small Qiankun bag, organizing everything he might need in an emergency, including talismans, pills, simple weapons, rations, and water. Only after making sure everything was accounted for did he finally step outside, his heart carrying a slight weight.
This time, his destination was a spot near a Shanlun tree, located thirty li northwest of Li'an No. 2 City, on the shady side of Black Tiger Mountain.
Luo Cheng didn’t know how many Shanlun trees were in this forest or exactly how far the secret realm had been from that tree when it opened. From the gossip article's description, the person mentioned in the news had only arrived at the location half an hour after the secret realm’s opening.
What had happened before that? Were there any valuable things inside? None of that was known.
Luo Cheng was aware that coming here based on such vague information was purely an impulsive decision, influenced by the special circumstances at the time. He wasn’t holding onto the expectation that he would definitely find the secret realm and successfully enter it. If he was lucky enough to stumble upon it and gain something from it, that would naturally be ideal. But even if nothing happened, it wouldn’t be much of a loss for him.
Besides, he had never heard of this mountain range being a place where cultivators frequently gathered, nor had he heard of any great demons appearing here. That was why he dared to explore it, otherwise, he wouldn’t have acted so recklessly.
Moreover, he had three completely different cultivation techniques in his possession, all of which could allow him to step onto the path of cultivation. However, they were the most basic types, with no advanced techniques to follow up on. They were all nothing but the most common goods.
So, entering the first level of cultivation wasn’t the real issue for Luo Cheng. His problem was gathering resources and seeking opportunities—whether from official channels, the Cultivator’s Alliance, or by affiliating himself with a sect or a faction—to obtain techniques that would allow him to continue cultivating beyond the basics.
Besides these three basic cultivation techniques, there was also a small, already faded talisman tucked away in the corner of his Qiankun bag. Inside it was another secret technique—one that his parents had somehow entrusted to someone to bring home not long after he was born. Once Luo Cheng formally set foot on the path of cultivation, this technique would provide him with a relatively reliable means of protection. Perhaps this was the most reliable gift those two had ever left him in their lifetime.
In truth, his decision this time was simply the result of several opportunities aligning in quick succession, giving him a push and allowing him to make his choice with ease to finally step onto this path.
Carrying his pack and putting away the portable house, Luo Cheng brought his small Qiankun bag and set out once more, heading toward the forest.
———
A thick mist covered the land, and the sound of thunder rumbled between heaven and earth.
The sound of this thunder had lasted for an unimaginably long time, so long that even this barren, lifeless land seemed to have forgotten when it began.
But now, after all these years, the thunder was finally fading. Its echoes were growing weaker, almost too faint to hear.
Given more time, perhaps ten days, a few months, or even years or decades... it would disappear completely.
On the cracked, dry ground, clusters of gray-black shadows stirred. Each time the thunder weakened, they became more active, as if waiting for it to vanish entirely. The moment it did, they would rise again, stretching out their barely recognizable limbs, and stand up again between the heaven and earth.
———
On the last day of May, Luo Cheng had already arrived at the shady side of Black Tiger Mountain. He had entered this mountain range three days ago. As an ordinary person with some martial arts skills but who had never camped alone before, traveling through this completely undeveloped mountain was truly a painful experience.
Moreover, in this mountain forest, though Shanlun trees were not particularly common, there were still quite a few. Just on this side alone, after careful searching, Luo Cheng found a total of eight!
He was not sure which of these eight was closest to his target location, so he could only choose one that seemed to have some years on it. Within twenty to thirty meters around it, there were also three other Shanlun trees. So he decided to make this spot his temporary campsite.
At this moment, Luo Cheng did not set up his portable house as there was no place nearby where he could place it. So he pitched a simple gauze tent instead. This tent had almost no defensive capability, barely providing some protection against rain and preventing small insects from crawling inside. But it was light and breathable, and most importantly, it allowed him to see the outside at all times without obstructing his vision.
Besides the tent, there was also a single-person sleeping bag, as well as the most important item for venturing deep into the mountains. An anti-insect sachet.
This sachet could repel ordinary, non-spiritual snakes, insects, rats, and ants. Its effectiveness lasted for about three months, and after wearing it, the effective range was quite large. As long as there was no strong wind, it could provide effective insect repellent within a diameter of two to three meters. But the problem was—
The smell was quite strong. Generally speaking, proper cultivators would rather spend some spiritual power to maintain a barrier around themselves to keep insects away than suffer the scent. But what could Luo Cheng do? He was still an ordinary person.
Still, he would endure for now. No matter the outcome this time, after this adventure, he had already decided to find a place with relatively abundant spiritual energy and officially step onto the path. When that time came, if he went into the mountains again, at least he would have the ability to deal with these ordinary little insects.
At this moment, Luo Cheng was lying on his side inside the tent, holding his old phone and browsing the website of the gossip news app. His newly bought phone was completely powered off and placed to the side. Although he had only inserted his original SIM card into the new phone once, he still worried that someone might have the means to trace the information from the service provider and track him down.
As for this old phone… at the very least, he had already tried all possible methods and had not found any trackers or wiretaps installed on it. Moreover, this phone had no SIM card at all. Other than the gossip news app, he had deleted all deletable apps, and he had also completely disabled the permissions for all apps with location functions. The chances of someone tracking him down through this were not high, so for now, using it was relatively safe.
At this moment, he was comparing two identical news articles—one from a website and the other from an app. It was about a male cultivator who mistakenly drank river water on the 28th and ended up with a bloated stomach.
The content of these two articles was almost completely the same, even down to the punctuation. Moreover, aside from the gossip news site, many other websites had also reported on this incident. The so-called "mistakenly drinking the Kingdom of Women's river water" claim was not something the gossip news site had forcefully made up just to attract attention.
In fact, when this matter first went viral online, it had nothing to do with the gossip news site at all. It was first mocked on Hongbo, then picked up by various public accounts trying to ride the trend, eventually spreading widely and going viral on the internet over the past few days.
Aside from this news, over the past few days, Luo Cheng had also received several other push notifications. Along the way, some of the news that had been "predicted" by the gossip news app had also started appearing on the internet one after another. At last, Luo Cheng managed to find a pattern regarding the predictive news.
Any news that was pushed out by the gossip news app in "prediction" mode as a major standalone report would always end up going viral on the internet afterward.
In reality, the gossip news site was just like any other public account or news website, merely riding the wave of trending topics. The only difference between it and other news media or public accounts was that its content was far more exaggerated, its headlines were much more shocking, and its articles were much more sensationalized than most websites and public accounts.
After searching online for information about this website, Luo Cheng found out that despite being such a trashy app, it actually had quite a number of real users. Although its user base was far smaller than that of legitimate news apps, there were still plenty of people who had even gone out of their way to follow its public account and website. Many people found amusement in this unreliable site, which eagerly hoped to publish news even more explosive than the original reports. They treated it as a source of daily entertainment, eagerly waiting to see how shamelessly this website would describe the same event.
The reason Luo Cheng had never heard of this app before was simply that he had never needed such an unreliable source of “fun” in his daily life. Rather than wasting time on something like this, he would rather read a few novels or watch some dramas. He had no interest at all in this kind of obviously clickbait, hype-chasing, traffic-hungry trash website.
In fact, this news had already been updated two days ago, but at that time, Luo Cheng had been busy confirming exactly how many Shanlun trees were on the shady side of the mountain. He hadn’t had the time to check it then, only now did he finally have the mind to carefully verify it.
After confirming that the two articles were completely identical, he put away his phone and tossed it into his Qiankun bag to isolate it from the outside world. Only then did he look toward a nearby tree, which, as the sky darkened, was becoming more and more indistinct. His mood was somewhat melancholic.
Among the various “predicted” news articles from the past few days, there were also one or two that mentioned the suspected emergence of secret realms or hidden caves in certain locations. But all those places were far from where Luo Cheng was now, and he had not even verified the rumors about the closest suspected secret realm yet. Being greedy for more before securing what was in front of him was not a good habit.
Besides, even if there was nothing to gain here, he could always consider going elsewhere later. Or he could simply choose one of the three cultivation techniques left behind by his parents. Either way, it would be better to first enter the path of cultivation and gain some ability to protect himself before making further plans.
After all, the only reason he had dared to come here so recklessly for his first adventure was because, while this mountain range did have wild beasts, there were rarely any reports of demonic beasts—especially powerful ones—being active here. If this were a place teeming with demonic beasts, no matter how much courage he had, he wouldn’t dare to barge in blindly with just his weak body in the Body Training stage.
TL: Spoiler Our ML is not in there ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ
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