After I left the sect, the entire sect knelt down and begged for forgiveness.

Some even go so far as to cultivate crops and use ripening agents...

She suddenly became curious about Cici's abilities. Its true form was a cactus; could its ability be to launch sneak attacks and use hidden weapons?

The white crocodile glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, noticing what she was curious about, and added, "It looks like a fighting spirit."

It's hard to imagine what such an adorable sprite would look like in battle. Would it grow larger and launch spikes like it did when it fought me before?

Once Cici awoke, she followed it to the altar. A flash of green light, and she appeared in the sand. However, her location was random; she had no idea where Cici had teleported her.

Exhausted to the point of near collapse, Cici quickly released her flying boat, set up a barrier to settle the rabbit Tangyuan and the white crocodile, and then entered the space with its main body.

Upon seeing her, Binglian reminded her, "We're running out of spirit stones. Leave more this time to save us the trouble of traveling back and forth."

Lin Yan smiled and was not hurt by Bing Lian's cold tone at all. Instead, she piled up 30,000 high-grade spirit stones and planted the cactus by the pond.

She gently introduced, "Look, this is the good companion I found for you. It will be living here for a while, so you two must get along well."

Perhaps it's easy for plants to connect with each other; when Binglian saw the cactus being buried, she didn't react much, and her tone of voice even lost some of its coldness.

She thought to herself that the other party was satisfied with this companion. She introduced them to each other, gave a few instructions, and then went to check on the Mystic Grass and Crimson Spirit Fruit.

The previously harvested mystical herbs have regrown, and perhaps because beast cores were thrown in as nutrients, they are growing exceptionally well. The Crimson Spirit Fruit has also borne fruit, though it is not yet ripe.

She had originally planned to keep some small fish in the pond to keep Binglian company, but she was always busy, and Binglian also resisted keeping other creatures in the pond, so she had to give up.

She harvested some of the mystical herbs and stepped out of the space again, only to see the rabbit staring at her expectantly.

"Gurgle~" The grass is finished, Master.

Look at that adorable expression and those cute eyes! This rabbit in its non-combat form is just too cute to handle.

She figured that since there were no other cultivators to accompany her on this journey, having these adorable little creatures with her was quite nice. Communicating with cute monsters was much better than interacting with other cultivators.

After leaving the secret realm, its communication jade disc was finally able to receive messages. Upon taking it out, it found quite a few messages.

First, I opened the message my master sent. The last one was sent a few days ago, informing her to come out of the Yellow Sand Land and hurry to the Xuantian Sect to register for the Immortal Sect Competition.

She glanced at the time displayed on her communication jade disc; there was only about a month left before the registration deadline for independent cultivators. Lin Yan didn't have time to look at other messages; she quickly set up defensive formations and barriers, and started her flying boat to head towards the Xuan Tian Sect.

Once the airship started, she sat on the deck and reread the other messages her master had sent.

Scrolling up, I saw that my master was asking for my opinion on the apprenticeship ceremony. When she didn't reply, he sent me messages again a few days later to inquire about her situation.

Lin Yan considered her words carefully before replying: "Master, I was training in the Yellow Sands when I accidentally wandered into a barren secret realm. I just came out and only just received this news. I'm sorry to have worried you; I'm perfectly fine. I'm currently on my way to the Xuan Tian Sect. As for the apprenticeship ceremony, it can wait until after the Immortal Sect Grand Competition."

After sending the message, she checked the messages from Venerable Miaoyin. There were only two messages, which mentioned the elimination of the Blood Bat breeding base and told her not to worry, as the sect would handle everything.

Another question inquired about her situation in the desert.

The Blood Bats were indeed beyond the capabilities of a Golden Core cultivator like herself; it was safest for the sect to take over, and she had no objection to that. She didn't have the energy to deal with other matters now; to continue investigating the Blood Bats, she would have to wait until after the Immortal Sect Competition.

She briefly replied about her current situation and then looked at other people's messages.

Mu Feng told her about the situation in Richeng and told her that someone from the auction house would add her on their communication jade disc to discuss compensation.

After giving a brief reply, she checked the jade disc account that had added her, and sure enough, a jade disc account with the nickname "Auction House Little Helper" had added her.

After she passed the request, the other party quickly sent her a message to discuss compensation.

The final settlement was to compensate her with 800 high-grade spirit stones per stone. Since she didn't have a spirit stone token, she had to go to a merchant guild with an auction house sign, submit proof of purchase, and then she could collect her compensation spirit stones, though a small handling fee would be deducted.

After communicating with the auction house staff, she exited the chat and then received a group invitation from her master.

The group's name is extremely simple: Master-Disciple Group.

She could almost imagine that her master was too lazy to put in the effort to come up with a nice-sounding group name, so he chose such a simple and straightforward one.

There were only four people in the group, and not a single message. It was as if she hadn't joined at all.

Duan Yi: My disciple, that group is just for show. Your senior brothers and sisters don't chat with each other much. After you arrive at Xuan Tian Sect, send your master a message, and I will take you to seek justice from that old scoundrel Ling Yun.

She thought for a moment and replied: "Master, why not wait until after the Immortal Sect Competition? I will definitely achieve a good ranking in the competition and bring honor to you. Then, when you help me seek justice, you will be able to slap them in the face!"
Duan Yi: So confident?

An anonymous cultivator replied: "Of course, I will certainly not disappoint my master!"

The meaning is: Do your best.

After finishing her conversation with her master, she put away the jade disc and took stock of her gains in the secret realm.

Thirty-five thousand high-grade spirit stones, several abyssal crocodile corpses, several colorful spider corpses, five mummies, a small pile of broken colorful crystal fragments, and a few stalks of sand and grass...

Most importantly, I gained two companions, Thorn and Crimson Bow.

The losses were considerable. Tens of thousands of high-grade spirit stones, nearly a thousand talismans, nearly a thousand hidden weapons, three bottles of top-grade healing pills, three bottles of qi-replenishing pills... She had almost finished all the healing and qi-replenishing pills she had refined herself.

There's no alchemy room on the small flying boat, and I don't have all the necessary materials to refine it. I'll have to wait until I get to the Xuantian Sect and register before I'll have time to refine it.

About half a month after registration, all participating cultivators will be divided into groups by the organizers and then draw lots to compete.

After tallying the gains and losses, it's time to open the storage bags of those three mid-stage Golden Core cultivators.

Because they were at the same cultivation level and her mental strength was extremely powerful, she erased the mental imprint on it without much effort.

She first opened the storage bag of the cultivator who claimed to be an assassin. She sensed that assassins who lived on the edge wouldn't carry their entire fortune on their person, so she didn't have high expectations for this storage bag.

As she expected, the storage bag contained some common pills and low-level magical artifacts. (End of Chapter)