Fang Han's journey to the Qunxing Sect this time was without any setbacks, smoothly flying to the "Meteorite Mountain." Standing high up in the clouds and gazing far into the distance, all he saw were rolling mountain ranges stretching to the end of his vision, deep into the horizon. It was simply unknown how deep and how far they went. Mountain peaks rose steeply from the ground; some were towering and pierced straight into the clouds, some were beautiful and gathered spiritual energy, some had rugged and jagged rocks, and some were surrounded by waterfalls. The feng shui was exceedingly excellent.
Looking down at the "Meteorite Mountain" from the sky, one could feel that this incomparably massive mountain range was constantly emitting a desolate and mysterious aura from the extra-terrestrial sky at all times.
This mountain range seemed to have a mysterious connection with the countless stars beyond the heavens.
Within Fang Han's divine sense, surging power of the stars was constantly falling from the sky, merging into the mountains, allowing this continuous mountain range to possess vast spiritual energy. The vegetation was lush, spiritual herbs grew in clumps, and even some animals in the mountains—tigers, leopards, jackals, wolves, rabbits, sheep, river deer, foxes, snakes, insects, rats, and ants—possessed extraordinary spirituality.
"This mountain range is truly crouching tigers and hidden dragons; it is deep, mysterious, and unfathomable. It seems it indeed possesses the atmosphere of a great sect of the Immortal Dao. Speaking of which, I have never been to the Qunxing Sect before and do not know the way. Baby Nebula, you lead the way." Fang Han said.
"Senior Brother, the palaces of our Qunxing Sect are refined from a giant immemorial meteorite above the Nine Heavens Astral Wind layer. It has been refined by the past generations of Headmasters, Elders, and Supreme Elders of the Qunxing Sect, and countless cave heavens have naturally formed within it. All outer sect disciples, inner sect disciples, and True Legacy Disciples cultivate within the cave heavens and do not come out easily. Unless there is a sect mission, a spiritual amulet will be issued, allowing them to fly down from the Nine Heavens Astral Wind layer. It is not like the Ascension Sect, where all disciples cultivate on the mountain peaks and the earth."
A True Legacy Disciple hurriedly said, seemingly trying to curry favor.
Seeing that even the illustriously famous "King of Dark Hell" of the demonic path was completely subdued by Fang Han, the several True Legacy Disciples could only thoroughly look up to him.
"Oh? In the Nine Heavens Astral Wind layer. Then let us go, but with your divine abilities and mana, entering the Nine Heavens Astral Wind layer possesses quite some difficulty. Do you perhaps have spiritual amulets bestowed by the sect on your persons?"
Upon hearing this, Fang Han developed a great interest in the Qunxing Sect and immediately flew upwards.
It was recorded in the "Various Worlds" the difference between the Qunxing Sect and the Ascension Sect. The Ascension Sect nurtured its disciples by leaving them to their own devices, allowing them to go out and travel everywhere.
The Qunxing Sect, however, had everyone cultivate uniformly inside the sect. It was equivalent to raising them in captivity.
Even if ordinary disciples wanted to come out, they could not, because it was in the Nine Heavens Astral Wind layer. Even for experts at the first or second layer of the Divine Ability Realm, it was difficult to come and go freely.
In the Xuanhuang Great World, the higher one flew, the more violent the heavenly wind and atmosphere became. After ascending to a height of tens of thousands of feet, the ferocity of the air currents was enough to tear a person into pieces. This was the so-called astral wind! This wind could rival the astral energy of the Daoist schools, hence it was called astral wind. In other words, individuals who had not cultivated to the third layer of the Divine Ability Realm, the Astral Energy Realm, essentially had no way to survive or move about within the Nine Heavens Astral Wind. Unless they possessed powerful body-protecting magic treasures.
Of course, even individuals who had cultivated to the third layer of the Divine Ability Realm, the Astral Energy Realm, had to be extremely careful, otherwise they would exhaust their strength in the astral wind layer and ultimately have their bodies smashed to pieces. Only True Persons who had cultivated to the fifth layer of the Divine Ability Realm, the Heaven and Earth Realm, could come and go freely in the astral wind layer without danger. Naturally, it was merely lacking in danger; over a long period, it would still consume quite an amount of mana.
Of course, there were many treasures in the astral wind layer. For example, if one caught a powerful "Wind Giant Spirit" and sealed it inside a flying sword, the speed and power of the flying sword would surge.
Moreover, there were treasures condensed in the astral wind layer from the radiance of stars, the essence of the sun and moon, and the essence of extra-terrestrial meteorites.
Additionally, there were also precious swords of ancient cultivators.
Many ancient cultivators liked to sacrifice their precious swords into the Nine Heavens Astral Wind layer, borrowing the power of the astral wind to temper spirituality into them. A good flying sword needed thousands of years to be tempered.
Rumor had it that when Immortal Venerable Panwu was refining his flying sword, he sealed the flying sword in earth fire for a thousand years, and then refined it in the astral wind for a thousand years. Its final transformation made it incomparably sharp, capable of slaying gods and executing demons, and invincible wherever it went.
Of course, many ancient cultivators, after exhausting their heart's blood to refine a precious sword and placing it into the Nine Heavens Astral Wind layer, would encounter tribulations, be killed by others, suffer from qi deviation, or reach the end of their lifespan and have their qi dissipate and their martial arts vanish before the tempering was complete. These flying swords then became ownerless items. Finding one by chance would mean striking it rich.
As Fang Han flew into the Nine Heavens Astral Wind layer, he felt the intense howling of the wind force from all sides. The sky was filled with the wailing of ghosts and the howling of gods, as if trillions of Astral Energy Realm experts were executing wind-attribute divine abilities, squeezing and striking towards him. Looking around, it was a vast expanse everywhere. Some black wind pillars formed tornado shapes, floating around in all directions as if possessing spirituality, seemingly searching for living beings with bodies of flesh and blood to devour.
Under such a terrifying scene, ordinary Divine Ability Realm experts would essentially be torn to pieces as soon as they came up. However, what kind of person was Fang Han? He did not even use the Five Emperors Canopy to protect his body; he simply unleashed the Great Devouring Technique. Instantly, countless black voids formed around him. Any astral wind blowing into the black voids dissipated completely, the power of the air currents swallowed entirely.
For a time, within a radius of several miles around him, there was completely no astral wind; the power had all been drained.
"Gagagaga, the Nine Heavens Astral Wind is the most suitable for tempering the physical form! Comfortable!" Inside the Yellow Spring Diagram, Yan laughed strangely with joy. Using the method of demonic spirit possession, he placed his sustenance in the Immemorial Heavenly Dragon skeleton. Refining the impurities out of it and fusing the various heroic spirits into himself to manifest his true body was not an easy matter; it required an endless amount of effort.
Right now, a bone dragon was coiled on the Blood Dragon Crystal mountain peak. The blood-red liquid within that Blood Dragon Crystal mountain peak was forcibly extracted by Yan using mana and then cast onto the skeleton. Gradually, the blood qi became abundant, and flesh and blood grew upon those bones.
This Blood Dragon Crystal mountain peak was the place where the Immemorial Heavenly Dragon shed its skin. Every time the Heavenly Dragon shed its skin, it coiled upon it, dripping with fresh blood that seeped into the mountain peak. Throughout a Heavenly Dragon's life, it was unknown how many times it shed its skin, hundreds or thousands of times. Therefore, this mountain peak was entirely filled with dragon blood and dragon power.
Originally, the reason the Immemorial Heavenly Dragon shed its skin upon it time and time again was to lay the foundation for refining the "Eight Sections Pagoda" in the future. Among the Eight Sections Pagoda magic treasure, the hardest part to refine was a pagoda.
And this mountain peak, after the Heavenly Dragon itself had shed its skin on it thousands of times, possessed extremely powerful spirituality. It was a good material for refining a pagoda. However, now Yan was using the dragon blood essence within it to perfect its own physical body.
Now, there was even boundless Nine Heavens Astral Wind blowing into the Yellow Spring Diagram, brushing around the Blood Dragon Crystal mountain peak with cracking sounds. These astral winds scraped the bones like sharp blades, instantly causing sparks to fly in all directions as they scraped Yan's skeleton, but Yan had a look of great comfort.
This was tempering the body with the astral wind, and for it, it was indeed very comfortable.
"After I visit the Qunxing Sect, I will use the Crimson Emperor Fire Sovereign Qi to help you cultivate! I will use the Fire Sovereign Astral Energy to refine your skeleton once more, shortening the extent of your transformation." Fang Han said.
"Forget about that, it's better if I do it myself. Although tempering with the Fire Sovereign Astral Energy can shorten the time, I would absolutely be in excruciating pain, half dead and half alive." Yan shivered.
"Since that is the case, then cultivate on your own." Seeing Yan like this, Fang Han also could not help but smile.
Fang Han flew higher and higher, gradually reaching above the nine heavens, to a height of a hundred thousand feet. The astral wind here was even more violent; even a mass of steel would be blown into powder, but he remained completely unaffected.
The five Qunxing Sect True Legacy Disciples beside him all activated an amulet, moving cautiously, while simultaneously admiring Fang Han's great divine ability, coming and going freely deep within the astral wind.
"I didn't find any Wind Giant Spirits in the astral wind layer, but this is also normal. Since this place is the location of the Qunxing Sect's gates, any Wind Giant Spirits would have been captured long ago." Fang Han shook his head and continued to fly up. Right at this moment, he suddenly saw a giant meteorite floating in the endless astral wind, remaining entirely steadfast.
This meteorite was even larger than a city. Its aura was ancient and magnificent. However, amidst the heaven and earth astral wind, it also seemed like a grain of sand in a vast ocean.
On the surface, this giant meteorite had not a single trace of the aura of life. It seemed like a dead behemoth, allowing the astral wind to brush against it for a thousand years, ten thousand years… or even longer.
"How formidable… The aura of this meteorite unexpectedly has the faint momentum of the Human Sovereign Pen…" Fang Han looked at this immemorial meteorite, and his mind thumped violently. He could already tell that this meteorite was actually a magic treasure, an extremely powerful magic treasure, absolutely a supreme-grade Dao artifact, and it was infinitely close to an immortal artifact.
However, he had no thoughts of collecting it.
Because this was the mountain gate of the Qunxing Sect. There had not yet been an immemorial great mighty figure ferocious to the extent of collecting a mountain gate of the Ten Schools of the Immortal Dao.
It was unknown what kind of extra-terrestrial anomaly this meteorite was. Collected from beyond the heavens by the founding ancestor of the Qunxing Sect and placed in the astral wind layer, it was tempered day and night, absorbing power for tens of thousands of years.
Fang Han knew that one day, this immemorial meteorite would be tempered to its absolute limit, and then it would transform into an immortal artifact.
"Let's go! We have arrived, let us go in." Baby Nebula knew the way familiarly. Upon seeing the immemorial great meteorite, he pulled on Fang Han's clothes and flew over. Within a hundred miles of this immemorial great meteorite, the wind stopped. It seemed there was a power drawing all the Nine Heavens Astral Energy inside.
Flying close to the immemorial great meteorite, Fang Han saw a majestic stone gate on it. Outside the stone gate were stone steps. A row of disciples who had not cultivated to the Divine Ability Realm was guarding the mountain gate. These disciples were clearly outer sect disciples, but every one of them was brimming with essential qi and spirit, patrolling back and forth without the slightest bit of slackness.
"Who approaches? Ah, it is the Young Sect Master returning."
Several of the outermost patrolling disciples saw several streaks of radiance flying over and hurriedly shouted. Subsequently, they saw the glow of Baby Nebula's Sun Moon Five Star Bracelet, and hurriedly nodded to salute and greet, acting exceedingly respectful.
At the same time, some of the disciples sized Fang Han up with their eyes, not knowing what kind of person came to visit the Qunxing Sect this time.
"This is Senior Brother Fang Han of the Ascension Sect. He holds a letter from the Headmaster Supreme of the Ascension Sect, Immortal Venerable Feng Baiyu, to be delivered to our Headmaster Immortal Venerable. All of you line up according to protocol." The five True Legacy Disciples immediately flew up to the front, landing before the giant stone gate to clear the path for Fang Han.
"Mm." Fang Han nodded in satisfaction.
Right at this moment, an inharmonious voice sounded from behind the stone gate: "The five of you have returned? There are only three days left until the Seventh Senior Brother's centennial birthday. Have you prepared the gifts you went out to procure?"