Chapter 1265: Extraheavensphere

Yue Mian flapped his enormous wings to propel himself up into the air, and in the blink of an eye, he had ascended through the clouds, but he displayed no sign of stopping as he continued to elevate himself further and further.

The world's origin qi in the surrounding space was quickly becoming sparser and sparser, and Yue Mian warned, "Sit tight!"

Immediately thereafter, countless azure incantation seals surged out of his talons before swirling around him, and his speed was instantly enhanced by a hundredfold, reducing all of the surrounding scenery to a rapid blur.

Han Li was almost thrown off Yue Mian's back by the abrupt acceleration, and he hurriedly channeled his cultivation arts to stabilize himself.

Moments later, Yue Mian seemed to have broken through some type of boundary and arrived in a unique space.

It was a boundless, blue space that was incredibly pristine, with not even the faintest cloud or the slightest speck of dust to be seen.

However, at the same time, this place was also completely devoid of world's origin qi, and all other types of energy, for that matter. It was a space filled with boundless nothingness.

Never had he flown at such a lofty altitude before, so this was a stunning sight that he had never gotten to witness.

"What is this place? I don't think I've ever been here before," Jin Tong murmured as she looked around in a slightly dazed manner.

"This is the Ethersphere," Xiaobai answered.

"What's that?" Han Li asked.

"According to my father's memories, the atmosphere of the True Immortal Realm is split up into three sections, the Ethersphere, the Astralsphere, and the Extraheavensphere. This is the Ethersphere, which is closest to the ground, and beyond the Ethersphere is the Astralsphere, while beyond that is the legendary Extraheavensphere, also known as the Extraheaven Realm," Xiaobai explained.

"I see," Han Li murmured with a thoughtful expression.

"These three areas are all at extremely high altitudes and are rife with peril. For example, this Ethersphere is completely devoid of spiritual qi, so any cultivator that stays here for extended periods of time will suffer severe detrimental effects. Hence, the average cultivator would never come here, and as a result, there are very few records of this place," Xiaobai continued, and Han Li nodded in response.

With his cultivation base, visiting the Ethersphere was not a difficult task, but he had been too busy working on his cultivation and hiding from the Heavenly Court, so he had never gotten a chance to explore such areas.

Jin Tong was sitting beside Han Li with a scowl on her face, seemingly very averse to the environment here.

"Are you alright, Jin Tong?" Han Li asked.

"I'm fine. It's just that the complete lack of spiritual qi here is rather unsettling," Jin Tong replied.

"In that case, why don't you go and rest in the Flower Branch domain?" Han Li suggested.

Jin Tong nodded in agreement with this suggestion, and Han Li cast her into the Flower Branch domain, while Yue Mian continued to ascend higher and higher.

The Ethersphere was astonishingly massive, and even with Yue Mian's incredible speed, it took him close to an hour to reach the end.

All of a sudden, ferocious, black storms began to appear up ahead, and they were sweeping through the air in waves amid a thunderous howling sound.

"Is this the Astralsphere?" Han Li asked.

"It must be. The Astralsphere is filled with Heavenly Astral Wind, making it an extremely dangerous and inhospitable place, but it's quite tame compared with the Extraheavensphere," Xiaobai explained.

As soon as his voice trailed off, Yue Mian dove headfirst into the storms of Heavenly Astral Wind up ahead without any hesitation, and the howling instantly became so deafening that even Han Li was beginning to feel a throbbing pain in his eardrums.

He hurriedly channeled his time law powers to protect his own ears, while a layer of protective white light had also surfaced over Xiaobai's body.

The gusts of Heavenly Astral Wind were tearing viciously at Yue Mian, but they were kept firmly at bay by an azure light barrier that encompassed his entire body, and his speed wasn't hampered in the slightest as he continued his ascent.

Initially, Han Li was a little concerned, but his concerns were quickly assuaged upon seeing the ease with which Yue Mian was negotiating the surrounding storms.

These storms were unlike anything that Han Li had ever seen before. They were filled with incredibly violent power, and it was as if they were determined to completely annihilate anything that fell into them.

Thin, black lines could occasionally be seen within the storms, and they were able to tear open spatial rifts with ease, but these black lines were also unable to breach the azure light barrier around Yue Mian.

All of a sudden, Xiaobai's eyes lit up as he raised a hand to summon the white cloth pouch that was once his father's bonded immortal treasure.

The pouch instantly swelled to ten times its original size, and a ring of white light appeared over the mouth of the pouch, giving off a burst of tremendous suction force.

All of the Heavenly Astral Wind within a radius of hundreds of kilometers was instantly sucked into the pouch, and the same applied to the thin, black lines interspersed throughout the gusts of Heavenly Astral Wind.

After collecting all of the Heavenly Astral Wind in the nearby vicinity, the white pouch flew through the air like an all-devouring beast, sucking in all of the Heavenly Astral Wind in its path.

"Why are you collecting this Heavenly Astral Wind?" Han Li asked.

"I'm not collecting the Heavenly Astral Wind, I'm collecting those black lines, which are gusts of Black Whitewash Wind, something that only arises from millions of years of condensed Heavenly Astral Wind.

“There's a secret technique in my father's memories that can make use of Black Whitewash Wind to refine a type of extremely powerful Windbreaker Bead that poses a significant threat even to Great Encompassment cultivators. It's not every day that I get to come to the Astralsphere, so I have to take full advantage of the opportunity," Xiaobai explained with a smile.

Han Li nodded in response as he took an intrigued glance at the white pouch.

He had reflexively attempted to examine the pouch with his spiritual sense just now, yet as soon as his spiritual sense made contact with the pouch, it was instantly sucked in before being eradicated.

Despite the pouch's unremarkable appearance, it seemed to possess some very special and powerful abilities.

Before long, they had reached the end of the Astralsphere, and Yue Mian reached out with both of his talons to tear open a giant, spatial rift, which he flew directly into.

Han Li felt his vision blur momentarily, following which he found himself situated in a black space.

Countless asteroids were suspended in this black space, some of which were only the size of houses, while some were astonishingly massive, with their boundaries nowhere in sight. All of these asteroids were moving in an irregular fashion, and occasionally, some of them would clash or grate against one another to produce a deafening commotion.

Some of these asteroids were completely devoid of luster, while others were giving off light of all types of different colors to somewhat illuminate the darkness.

All of a sudden, a storm of blue ice blew over rapidly from afar, and it stretched as far as the eyes could see, resembling a gargantuan, blue ice dragon.

The smaller asteroids in its path were instantly frozen solid before being swept away by the storm, while thick layers of blue ice had materialized over the larger asteroids.

The blue storm had only just passed by when an enormous purple cloud appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. The purple cloud was filled with arcs of purple lightning, and all of the frozen asteroids instantly exploded upon contact with the cloud.

Immediately following the purple cloud emerged a giant, black vortex that was revolving rapidly, devouring everything in the nearby vicinity.

However, the black vortex was also only around for a fleeting moment before fading into nothingness.

It was clear that this was the Extraheavensphere, and Han Li felt as if he were situated in a boundless, black space, one in which neither his Infernal Devilish Eyes nor his spiritual sense were able to see very far.

Furthermore, he could sense a burst of power that was countless times more formidable than that of the revolution of the celestial bodies present in this space.

"The Extraheavensphere is fraught with peril, but there are also countless precious treasures to be found here. At your cultivation bases, you should be able to hold your own here, so I suggest you come here to explore from time to time. It'll be very beneficial for your cultivation," Yue Mian said as he continued to fly onward, but as opposed to ascending any further, he was now flying directly forward.

"There are indeed many precious treasures here," Xiaobai said as he adopted his Pixiu form and began excitedly sniffing at the air.

He then summoned his white pouch again before opening his mouth to release a ball of white light into it, and the pouch instantly swelled to several hundred kilometers in size.

At the same time, it had also become semi-transparent, and the threads that the pouch had been woven from spread apart to form a net.

Bursts of tremendous suction force surged out of the net to devour all of the nearby asteroids before crushing them to reveal chunks of ore of all types of different colors.

In the blink of an eye, the pouch had already gathered several hundred pieces of precious materials, and Han Li couldn't help but become even more curious about the pouch upon seeing this.

"Fellow Daoist Han, even though you've already reached the Great Encompassment Stage, you still only know very little about Dao Ancestors. Dao Ancestors possess powers beyond your imaginations, and there's a very good chance that we could be detected by other Dao Ancestors had we been flying at a lower altitude, so it's much safer to travel through the Extraheavensphere," Yue Mian explained.

"I see," Han Li replied with a contemplative nod.

Yue Mian continued to fly directly forward as bursts of azure ripples surged out of his body.

These azure ripples didn't appear all that remarkable, but all of them were imbued with astonishing power. All of the asteroids that came into contact with the ripples were instantly vaporized, regardless of their size, allowing Yue Mian to forge ahead at full speed.

Of course, none of the natural hazards present in the Extraheavensphere posed a threat to Yue Mian, either, and they were instantly eradicated without a trace as soon as they came into contact with his body.

Han Li had witnessed the power of peak-Great Encompassment cultivators on more than one occasion, and while they were theoretically only one step away from becoming Dao Ancestors, it was quickly becoming clear to Han Li that that single step may as well have been an infinitely wide chasm.