“the endless forest? You mean that endless forest!?” Aura let out in complete disbelief. She could not believe what she just heard, the endless forest is without a doubt the most dangerous place in the whole world. And now Holly had told her to go in, and alone! Even more, it was not just in and then back out no, she had to live there? Impossible!!

“yeah, the one and only endless forest” Holly affirmed without batting an eye.

Aura was shocked, she still couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

“you, are you telling me to go into the endless forest, and alone at that?” she finally asked after a few moments of pause to get her thoughts together.

“well it doesn’t have to be alone really, but it would give you a better chance to achieve element alignment. It will of course also make the chance of you surviving decrease quite a bit as well, but I don’t think it will be easy to find someone willing to go with you.”

“wait. Wait a minute, you said the best way to achieve element alignment was life and death battles right?” Aura asked still trying to make heads and tails of this.

“that I did indeed” Holly replied back knowing the question that would come next.

“then there should be many other places where I could get that other than the endless forest. So why can’t I just do that? I mean going into the endless forest on my own would be the same as simply killing myself” Aura asked almost terrified.

“Aura you are a smart girl so why don’t you tell me why the endless forest sect is as powerful as it is now?” Holly inquired.

“well, it’s mainly because the amount of essences that can be found is higher here than anywhere else” Aura answered.

“that’s right. You said before that you think you can enter the fifth great realm with a small miracle before the two years are up right?” Holly asked.

“yeah that’s right” Aura nodded.

“alright so with element alignment you will step into this realm. But then what? We both know that that’s not going to be enough” Holly said.

“so you need something more than just that. And I can tell you this if you didn’t know, the reason that there are so much essences here is because the sect it so close to the endless forest itself” holly added.

“so if you can enter the fifth realm with the amount of essences that can be found here then you need to go somewhere there is, at least, double that amount” Holly finished and leaned back a little to observe Aura.

This caused Auras mind to spin, she had, of course, heard about the great expedition two thousand or so years ago where a group of over one thousand of the world top cultivators entered the forest and found a place where the essences were more the double what it was within the sect. but they were the top of the top and in the end, only a handful made it out alive. There is no way she can get in there and live to get out again.

“but don’t I have to go really far in? it would properly take me months, and I would die a hundred times before I reach the deep forest! Not to mention the kings live there!” Aura exclaimed while half in shock over Holly could even suggest something as insane as this.

“haaa” Holly sighed deeply. “no you won’t be going into the lair of the kings, and it would only take a month or two to get into a place where the essence will be twice what it is here, that expedition also ran into a lord which was why it ended as it did. and with your mastery over soul force, you could properly hide from the more powerful magical beasts so you should be fine”

“well as fine as any can be surrounded by magical beasts that want to rip you into tiny little pieces and eat your flesh” Holly added.

“fine you say! How is that fine!” Aura could no longer hold back and shouted.

“I didn’t know become some kind of sex slave to the prince Kaspian was fine either” Holly added.

“well, no, that. Do you think I can do it?” Aura asked bowing her head in defeat.

“yeah I think you can do it, or at least, have a good enough chance. And it beat becoming a sex slave for Kaspian and his gang, right?” said as she got up.

“no it does, it’s just. No you are right I said I was willing to do anything, so I can back out now” Aura said nodding to herself.

“good, then I will talk with the sect and make sure no one will try to stop you from leaving, so you just go and prepare to set out, you don’t have any time to spare,” Holly said as she began to leave.

“haaa” Aura sighed after Holly had left. “I guess this is the one way I can get out if the, being it by death or success,” she said to herself in a small voice as she got up to leave.

Aura quickly made her way back home and decided to sleep for the rest of the night before starting her preparations.

As she was laying down she could not help but think about the endless forest. The forest itself got its name from its size, which took up almost the entire central continent, and from the endless amount of essences rich resources as well as the endless amount of magical beasts making the forest their home.

The forest is the most dangerous place in the whole world but also the place where one could get enormous gains if lucky. Aura knew this and more from the stories her father had told her when she was younger.

After some sleep, Aura got up and went straight for the spring in the back. She would often use this to wake her up.

After fully waking up Aura returned to the storeroom to get some supplies for the journey. She would need a lot of things, many of them would be quite costly if she had to buy it, but as a Queen she had gotten a lot of things and she would now for the third time make use of them.

She would need a lot of supplies if she hoped to stay in the forest for more than a year. Even if the forest was full of treasures such an essences rich fruit, it was not something she could rely on getting, so she would need the full amount of food and water to be safe.

Such a large amount of supplies was not something anyone could carry around on them, so they would need storage rings. these rings were an inter-spacial tool that could hold a large amount of items, they were made only by the demon race and was rather expensive, but was also a necessary tool for any cultivator.

“first I need a way to carry all the stuff I’m going to need,” Aura said to herself as she looked towards the jewellery.

“should be some storage rings among all of this” she muttered to herself as she began looking.

Time went by and Aura had found a lot of storage rings, she had taken ten of them and wore them around her neck with a silver chain, as she didn’t want to have rings on all her fingers. She did of course still have her normal one on as well, here she kept the most important things, which was really anything she would need on the spot such as weapons and live saving talismans and a bit of medicine and anti-poisons.

“now I just need to fill the rest of theses with some basic supplies and I’m good to go,” Aura said, lightly tapping the storage rings around her neck.

As the sun was about to set, she was done with everything and left the sect heading towards the endless forest.