Southern Desolate Realm.
At the edge of the continent, countless mountains overlapped, their ranges enclosing the land. Layer upon layer of peaks completely hemmed in an entire world.
It was like an isolated island suspended apart from the world.
That was precisely why this world had come to be known as the Southern Desolate Realm.
The people of the Southern Desolate Realm did not know whether there was another heaven beyond the Southern Wasteland, nor had anyone ever passed through the encircling mountains to reach the world beyond.
To the people of the Southern Desolate Realm, the vast world within these Hundred Thousand Great Mountains was the only heaven and earth.
Within the ten-thousand-li territory of the Southern Desolate Realm, five great dynasties stood tall.
These Five Great Dynasties jointly ruled the Southern Desolate world. They were the common masters of this realm and possessed absolute power over the lives and deaths of all beings within it.
They were like five great mountains hanging heavily over the heads of all people.
Even when later generations rose and their forces grew powerful, they had never managed to shake the rule of the Five Great Dynasties in the slightest.
Apart from the secular forces of the Five Great Dynasties,
the territory of the Southern Desolate Realm was also dotted with numerous martial cultivation sects.
The countless martial cultivators within it cultivated under the rules established by the Five Great Dynasties and the many sects.
The currently known realms of martial cultivation, from weakest to strongest, were divided into seven major realms: Third-rate, Second-rate, First-rate, Houtian, Xiantian, Grandmaster, and Great Grandmaster. The hierarchy was strict and difficult to overcome.
Third-rate martial artists were the lowest-level martial cultivators in the Five Great Dynasties, existing at the bottom alongside ordinary commoners.
Most Third-rate Martial Masters could only work as escorts or constables, taking on exhausting, laborious jobs at others' beck and call.
Great Grandmasters, martial cultivators standing at the peak of the Southern Wasteland Region, were a different matter.
Great Grandmasters were not only revered by the people; even princes, nobles, and sect Elders had to treat them with courtesy upon meeting them. They would spare no expense to invite them into their forces as lofty guest elders.
Though they were all cultivators, their statuses differed as greatly as clouds and mud.
"Precisely because of this, the martial cultivators of the Five Great Dynasties all desperately fight to climb higher."
"Sigh..."
After reading the same content over and over, Chu Feng was beginning to feel sick.
Outside Dongli City, Jiangnan Province, Beili Kingdom, there was a Dense Forest.
This Dense Forest was the most famous forest near Dongli City.
The Dense Forest covered a vast area and stood encircling Dongli City.
Fierce beasts often prowled around its outskirts, and ordinary civilians dared not approach.
Even Third-rate martial artists only dared to wander around the outer edges, never venturing deep inside.
For that very reason, no one had paid any attention to this forest for more than a decade, turning it into a place near Dongli City rarely visited by human beings.
Yet deep within that scarcely inhabited Dense Forest, a Thatched Cottage stood there incongruously.
Inside the cottage, a young man sat with his legs crossed, flipping through the few books in the room.
Chu Feng closed the book, sighed, and walked out of the cottage.
He glanced left and right at the lush, densely packed forest. A hint of complicated bewilderment showed in his dark pupils.
A month ago, he had transmigrated into this world. The moment he arrived, he had unfortunately fallen into this barren, deserted Dense Forest.
There were countless beasts in the forest, with tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves circling him, often moving through the woods and letting out long howls.
Especially at night, he could see countless pairs of glowing eyes spying on him from the darkness with the slightest peek outside.
If he had not run fast enough, he had probably already been digested and turned into nourishment for the trees in the forest.
Fortunately, Heaven never sealed off every path. While fleeing, Chu Feng had discovered this Thatched Cottage standing in the forest.
It was surrounded by one great tree after another, hidden within them and extraordinarily concealed.
Living in this Thatched Cottage had been carefree and unrestrained at first.
After all, wild beasts generally did not invade, and he could fill his stomach with rabbits and pheasants from the forest.
However...
Chu Feng swept his gaze across the relatively spacious area of woodland before him, cautiously studying both sides.
At present, although the place was silent, he understood that those tigers and leopards were hiding in the darkness, waiting for their prey to let down its guard.
If he stepped into the area and revealed the slightest flaw, he could very likely be struck dead by a wild beast on the spot.
Chu Feng propped up his chin, his expression turning hesitant. He lowered his head and pondered for a while, pacing back and forth in extreme indecision.
"Should I take the gamble?"
"Could it be that I'm really going to stay alone in these deep mountains and old forests until I die?"
Although this place was safe, it had nothing at all—not even someone to talk to.
For a young man like him, who had transmigrated from the modern era, this was truly unbearable.
It was simply mind-numbingly boring!
Apart from the boredom, filling his stomach was also a serious problem.
After all, pheasants and wild rabbits were not available every day, and he could not possibly be lucky every single day.
If he continued waiting by the tree for rabbits, he would starve to death here!
While he was deep in thought, he failed to notice a figure slowly approaching through the Dense Forest behind him.
The youth swallowed, warily surveying his surroundings.
As he looked back and forth, he walked deeper inside, muttering to himself as if encouraging himself:
"The books say that Hermit Experts usually like to live in quiet, remote deep mountains and old forests."
"Where an expert lives, wild beasts dare not approach, and Evil Disasters dare not intrude..."
"As long as I find a Hermit Expert..."
The instant his voice fell, the youth's footsteps halted in place.
He looked ahead, and a trace of excitement suddenly surged into his dazed gaze. His eyes lit up!
There, in the silent Dense Forest, stood a solitary cottage.
Then his gaze shifted downward slightly.
Suddenly, the youth held his breath, excitement almost impossible to restrain:
"I found it!"
Beneath the Thatched Cottage, a gray-robed young man stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the clouds with his back to him.
The young man wore plain clothes and straw sandals. He appeared calm and unhurried, as though everything around him was beneath notice.
He seemed like a thousand-year-old pine standing there, transcending the mortal world.
The youth hurriedly pulled a yellowed booklet from his waist. With trembling fingers, he opened it, his eyes sweeping across the page while also glancing toward the young man:
"A solitary house stands amid the deep mountains and old forests."
"Dressed in plain clothes and straw sandals, he lives alone as well!"
"This is none other than a Hermit Expert!"
Living in the deep mountains, fond of solitude, transcending the mortal world, yet possessing formidable strength.
Though this was a mountain forest where wild beasts frequently appeared, no Fierce Beasts had come to attack this place.
The man before him matched every point written in the book!
The storybook had not lied!
There really were Hermit Experts in this world!
The youth gazed at the young man's back, a trace of fanaticism welling in his eyes. He no longer hesitated for even an instant and tossed the storybook from his hand with a smack.
His appearance changed completely. The panic he had shown before was gone, and he no longer cared in the slightest that this was the heart of the Dense Forest, the most dangerous region recorded in the book.
There was only the young man before him in his eyes!
Without the slightest hesitation, the youth jogged all the way to the young man's back.
Before the young man could even turn around, he slid to his knees and bowed, his eyes shining and his expression fervent:
"I am Xiao Huohuo, the son of the Lord of Dongli City!"
"Huohuo greets the Hermit Expert! Senior, I beg you to take me as your disciple!"
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