The Southern Lands.
Due to its climate and geography, the Southern Lands were full of dense jungles, deadly beasts, and poisonous insects. Meanwhile, thanks to its humid weather and the thick miasma it was sparsely populated.
However, there are always those who journey into dangerous lands such as this one because of war, famine, or hope for a brighter future.
Even though the environment was harsh and it was sparsely populated thanks to the region's unique resources it still drove people to open up a brand new world.
....
"15 years, It's been 15 God damn years since I was reborn but nothing has changed."
Thought Gong Wu as he trudged through the dense foliage.
At present, he was pissed off that this was his fourth reincarnation but so far it's been his worst one yet.
He turned 15 yesterday which was a big achievement for a member of his tribe of wandering nomads.
In this life, he is Gong Wu the freak of his tribe of stupid mortals who have never even heard of cultivating before.
Gong Wu walked at the back of a large group of people covered in rags. They were his tribe but how they managed to all live up to this point is beyond me.
This is the Southern Lands which for someone who didn't cultivate was nearly impossible to survive in.
The constant barrage of poisonous insects was enough to kill even a cultivator unless they used their Qi to protect themselves.
These guys fixed that problem with herbs which did prevent poisonous insects from biting them but made them smell awful.
So they were smelly, weak, ignorant, and they were also complete assholes only concerned about themselves.
Gong Wu had even seen a mother throw her infant child into the mouth of a monster to save herself.
She didn't by the way that mother was still eaten but it was so messed up I just couldn't get it out of my head.
The image has been forever burned into my brain it will be there until I die.
Never had I seen such a display of selfishness but that would be the last I'd see of stuff like that.
All of these people every single one of them are rotten pieces of garbage and what's more there super judgmental.
Just because I look weird they call me freak instead of my name Gong Wu it's infuriating but I have to agree I do look weird.
I'm 7(3) but I only weigh 98 pounds remember I'm 15 years old so weighing only 98 pounds is not good. The average weight of a 15-year-old is around 120 pounds so I'm pretty underweight.
That's not too strange though everyone here is skinny my height is also a little unusual but they don't seem to care about that.
The reason they call me freak is because of my deformed skeleton. My bones were at least three times as thick as regular human bones and due to their thickness, they could clearly be seen from under my skin.
It didn't help that I was so thin it only made me look more freakish but everything has an upside. Since my bones are so dense they are nearly impossible to break.
I've been kicked in the chest by some kind of horse monster that could flatten a boulder like a piece of paper with its powerful legs and other than a nasty bruise I survived without even a single broken bone.
I was also a great fighter thanks to my extra thick bones.
I looked over to my right hand and made a fist while looking at my steel ball-like knuckles you see with these babies, I can easily crack a man's skull open.
They can call me a freak all-day but in the end, I have something that will help me survive in this hellish jungle full of monsters.
It doesn't matter if I look a little ugly what I lose in appearance I make up for in survivability.
Screw being hot I'd rather live who cares that not even a single girl has asked to marry me?
Even though I'm one of only a few unmarried men who hasn't been eaten you know fuck those chicks right.
At this point, Gong Wu began to sob quietly as he walked while cursing the selfish women in his tribe.
....
Many mortal tribes have ventured into the deadly jungles of the Southern Lands but little have survived.
Many of them ended up as wandering nomads never remaining in one place at a time to avoid all the dangers that lurk in the jungle.
The nameless tribe Gong Wu belongs to is one such group and they were led by Lin Ming a handsome young man with a strong physique.
He was the son of the previous leader who died of illness a few days ago and he was under a lot of stress.
"What are we gonna do we haven't found any bug repelling grass in the past few days and our reserves are running dangerously low,"
Lin Ming chewed his fingernails nervously as he walked at the front of the tribe.
Food, clothing, and medicinal herbs are almost all gone and they haven't been able to replenish their supply.
If things continued like this everyone is gonna die naked and hungry before the poisonous insects kill them.
"They'd be more likely to kill me before that happens shit what can I do,"
Lin Ming was having a panic attack right now it was no wonder his father died it must have been because of this insane stress.
"How could things get any worse,"
Just after Lin Ming finished his sentence spikes erupted from the ground impaling more than half of the tribesmen Lin Ming included.
"What's going on,"
"It's a beast attack more than half of our tribesmen are dead,"
"Run everyone run!!!"
All the people showcased their escaping skills as they speed off in different directions as fast as they could.
They may not be fighters but they did have a strong sense of danger and when push came to shove they could run like hell.
They expertly ran jumping from tree to tree avoiding the white spiked that shot out of the ground but those who couldn't get away were skewed.
The tribesmen tried their hardest to get away they couldn't run away from the endless assault of white spikes in the end everyone was hanging lifelessly from a long spike coming out of the ground except for one.
Gong Wu had quickly hidden after he saw a spike ripe through some guy in front of him and was currently hunched down behind a huge rock.
He tried his best to hide even slowing his breathing and suppressing his heartbeat to give off as little presence as he could.
A figure appeared out of nowhere slowly making his way through the skewed corpses carefully looking at each one and even pulling them down to examine them.
He looked to be in his mid-twenties with an average appearance and was just a head shorter than most other people.
This person muttered a mantra and some of the spikes vanished causing dozens of corpses to fall and hit the ground.
"What a good hall today luck is definitely on my side who would have guessed I'd find a nomadic tribe walking so close to me right when I needed some good bones,"
Yun Lao hummed a merry little tune as he began removing the flesh off the bodies he picked from the dead tribesmen.
It was a good day for this disciple of the white bone temple. Yun Lao needed more bones to refine his skeleton puppet and magically he found this group of unfortunate people.
A lot of them had strong skeletons with this his puppet will be even tougher than before. He needed to upgrade his old one or else he will fall behind his other disciples.
"I don't want to be left behind gotta strip the flesh and get those strong bones,"
Yun Lao didn't sense Gong Wu hiding behind a boulder only a few feet away. He was more concerned with collecting bones for his white bone art and wasn't paying attention to his surroundings which was the perfect opportunity to kill.
Gong Wu took a crudely made dagger and attacked Yun Lao stabbing his neck.
"Die,"
Roared Gong Wu as he struck but instead of blood gushing from his neck like he thought would happen the dagger shattered into pieces.
Yun Lao stopped what he was doing and glanced at Gong Wu and looked at him from head to toe.
"You got an interesting skeleton just stay there for me I'll take your bones later,"
Gong Wu looked at Yun Lao with a dazed looked not understanding why the blade couldn't pierce his neck.
He then decided to run but he couldn't get far before two bone hands came out from the ground and grabbed Gong Wu's ankles pulling him beneath the soil leaving only his head sticking out.
Yun Lao hummed his little tune as he placed the harvested bones covered in viscera in a heap next to him.
"Just a few more minutes until then wait your turn strange skeleton man hahaha,"