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

Chapter 5 The Three-Year Period 3
Now that she's arrived at the Demon Forest ahead of schedule, she can't soak in the Spirit Spring anymore. She knows from the novel that the Spirit Spring is guarded by demonic beasts. With her current strength, she's not capable of fighting the demonic beasts guarding the Spirit Spring.

Her small frame wouldn't even be enough to fill a monster's teeth.

She pushed open the door and went outside, only to find that it was already evening. There were quite a few cultivators meditating on the deck, their robes bearing no sect insignia, confirming that they were undoubtedly independent cultivators.

As independent cultivators have no sect, faction, or family, the resources they can obtain are limited, so they naturally try to save spirit stones wherever possible, and usually buy the ordinary tickets.

They were focused on their meditation, seemingly unaffected by their surroundings.

When cultivators below the Nascent Soul stage meditate and absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, their bodies will exhibit fluctuations in spiritual energy.

If cultivators are too close together while absorbing spiritual energy, they can easily interfere with each other. This can range from affecting cultivation efficiency to causing blockages in their cultivation progress.

This is also why cultivators prefer to cultivate alone in their caves rather than in groups. Even when traveling, cultivators will choose suitable cultivation places deep in the mountains and forests rather than staying in inns in bustling cities.

She strolled to a corner of the deck, admiring the view from mid-air. The surrounding area was shrouded in a greyish mist, with dark clouds obscuring the view, threatening rain.

When it rained, the weather in the air was complicated, with strong winds and natural lightning. She was worried that the speed of the flying boat would be affected and she would not be able to reach Wan Yao Sen sooner.

As she was lost in thought, a roar pulled her back to reality. The airship rocked slightly before regaining its balance.

Just now, a natural lightning bolt from the clouds struck the flying boat's barrier, causing the boat to shake slightly. The flying boat's barrier was set up by a Nascent Soul Venerable, and ordinary lightning couldn't shake it, so she didn't need to worry about the flying boat being damaged.

At this moment, a male and a female cultivator walked over and greeted her seemingly casually, while inquiring about her whereabouts.

She knew that one should always be cautious when traveling. So, while remaining vigilant, she responded to their questions politely on the surface.

She carefully observed the two of them, not missing a single subtle expression. She tried to analyze their micro-expressions to see if they harbored any ill intentions.

The female cultivator, named Zi Luo, was heading to the Sandy Lands. The other party told her they had received word of treasure there and suggested she and her partner try their luck. They even extended an invitation to split the treasure if found.

The invitation is real, but saying it's split equally is utter nonsense!

Most of the secret realms are controlled by sects, aristocratic families, and royalty.

To acquire cultivation resources, rogue cultivators can only pick up scraps, risk their lives to find undiscovered secret realms and treasures, or plunder other cultivators' treasures.

Many independent cultivators form temporary teams to venture into dangerous places in search of resources. However, the resources they acquire are distributed according to their strength.

These two people came up and said they would split it equally with her. What else could it be but something fishy?
She wasn't interested in the treasure either and refused outright. She also said she had business to attend to in Garan City and wouldn't change her route midway.

Hearing her refusal, the two men did not try to persuade her. They exchanged a glance, turned and left to find other monks without companions.

The airship traveled for three days and reached the edge of the Ten Thousand Demon Forest. To avoid attacks from demonic beasts, the airship would not fly directly over the Ten Thousand Demon Forest, but would instead fly around it from the outer edge.

The flying boat is equipped with a loudspeaker, which will remind the cultivators whenever it needs to stop.

When the flying boat's barrier opened, she took out a paper crane from her storage bag, enlarged it, and rode away on the paper crane.

The outer perimeter of the Ten Thousand Demon Forest isn't very dangerous; there are quite a few first-grade spiritual plants, and even some third-grade ones, but they're extremely rare, and finding them depends entirely on luck. The closer you get to the center, the higher the quality of the spiritual plants, but the greater the danger. Many cultivators have perished in the Ten Thousand Demon Forest because of greed and a lack of understanding of their own strength.

The first team training trip that sects or cultivation families choose for their disciples is usually in the outer area of ​​the Ten Thousand Demon Forest. Therefore, apart from cheap spiritual plants, there are basically no other resources left in the outer area of ​​the Ten Thousand Demon Forest.

Deep within the Demon Forest, poisonous venom permeates the air, and demonic beasts roam freely. There, spiritual and malevolent energies intertwine and mingle, dark clouds linger above, and the ground below is gloomy and eerie.

Moreover, there are many unknown hallucinogenic plants inside, which can easily cause cultivators to hallucinate and lose their minds if they are not careful. In addition, there are hidden poisonous plants and insects, making it difficult for cultivators to guard against them.

It's not that sects and immortal cultivation families haven't joined forces to try and take control of the Ten Thousand Demon Forest.

Once, the eight major sects, together with the five ancient immortal cultivation families, sent a total of three Nascent Soul cultivators and twenty Enlightenment cultivators to the interior of the Ten Thousand Demon Forest. As a result, all the Enlightenment cultivators perished, and one Nascent Soul cultivator died while the other two were injured, causing their cultivation to regress and making further progress impossible.

From then on, no cultivator dared to set foot inside the Ten Thousand Demon Forest.

Between the outer perimeter and the central ring of the Ten Thousand Demon Forest, many sects or aristocratic families have left numerous warning stone tablets to prevent their disciples from accidentally wandering in during their training.

Of course, there's nothing you can do if a disciple is courting death. Good advice is useless against a devil who deserves to die.

If the female protagonist hadn't been favored by the heavens and hadn't possessed a jade pendant left behind by an ascended powerful being, how could she have dared to venture into the Ten Thousand Demon Forest in the middle of the novel?

However, the novel didn't delve into the central area of ​​the Ten Thousand Demon Forest later on. Perhaps the author gave the protagonist too many power-ups and arranged too many plot points, forgetting about the Ten Thousand Demon Forest.

As soon as she landed, three Xuan Tian Sect disciples followed closely behind. They were the same three disciples she had encountered at the merchant guild earlier.

The tall disciple didn't treat her well, giving a cold "humph".

He crossed his arms over his chest, his nostrils flared, and said in a contemptuous tone, "Oh, weren't you a direct disciple before? Now that you've left the sect, you can only ride paper cranes. I thought you had a lot of confidence to dare to leave the sect."

After saying that, he looked at his senior brother. Before the man could speak, he suggested, "I think we shouldn't invite her to join us. She's not a disciple of our Xuantian Sect anymore and is still a female cultivator. She might hold us back."

The tall male cultivator's name was Du Xuan. He usually bullied the weak and feared the strong, and had a deep sense of gender superiority.

He was the most reluctant when his senior brother in the group suggested inviting Lin Yan to join him. However, among the three, his cultivation level wasn't the highest, and he wasn't the one in charge, so his objections were ineffective.

Seeing that Lin Yan was riding a tattered paper crane and didn't even have a sword, he first made sarcastic remarks without saying a word, and then suggested that he not team up with her.

Lin Yan was speechless. She hadn't even said she wanted to team up with them, so why was this guy talking nonsense?

The middle disciple was the smarter one, but he couldn't hide the scheming in his eyes.

Lin Yan knew it immediately. This person wanted to team up with her because he thought she was a former direct disciple, and even if she wasn't highly regarded, she still enjoyed more resources than outer disciples. He also had valuable treasures to rely on after leaving the sect. Therefore, he wanted to bring her along so he could push her forward in times of danger.

But he was wrong. The resources he obtained were either borrowed or given to his junior sister. He was just a toolbox in the sect, with very little actually in his hands.

(End of this chapter)