After entering the forest, the short, stocky man began to panic.
He had no idea where he had stumbled into. The Dizhen Domain contained perilous lands that even Void Refinement cultivators did not dare enter lightly.
Once his initial panic passed and he calmed himself, the short, stocky man began searching for a way out. But the forest was astonishingly vast, and his search lasted ten years.
Throughout those ten years, he never encountered a single cultivator in the forest, only strange demon beasts he had never seen before, all of them tremendously powerful.
While fleeing, he could only keep fighting those demon beasts, suffering injuries, then hiding to heal before venturing out again to search for an exit. What followed was more fighting, fleeing, and healing...
During this process, he also gathered some unfamiliar medicinal herbs containing considerable spiritual energy. These counted as an unexpected gain.
Today, he had reached yet another part of the forest he had never visited and fought a vicious battle against a giant turtle shaped like a small mountain.
Unable to defeat it, he exhausted every ounce of his strength before finally escaping its relentless pursuit and attacks. In his panic, he plunged headlong into a bank of mist among the trees.
After he entered the mist, the dappled sunlight falling from the sky dazzled his eyes. He instinctively closed them for a moment, and when he opened them again, he found himself inside this inexplicable cave.
"Wh... where is this? Did it swallow me into its belly?"
The short, stocky man quickly snapped out of his bewilderment. His entire body tensed, and he channeled magical power into his eyes before surveying his surroundings.
Everything around him was silent. First of all, he sensed no danger approaching.
The cave was small, and almost immediately,