The vast world of cultivation was incomparably, indescribably, and unbelievably profound. This was especially so for the myriad worlds that existed throughout space, time, and the void. When Mortal Realm cultivators tapped into the principles of Stable Space within the Realm World Phase, the Seventh Stage of the Astral Core Realm, they acquired the exceptional ability to carve out areas of space, hollowing it out for other things to occupy it. After doing so, they could develop it in many ways.
Many cultivators create subspace realms that overlap with stable space, often concealed by formations or the like. These isolated spaces were used to observe, rest, or perform cultivation without being interrupted. They sometimes form cultivation chambers or special halls meant for private meetings or affairs. When cultivators of this level or beyond traveled the vast worlds, especially illustrious Dao Companions or married cultivators, they would create these spaces much like temporary cabins to dual cultivate.
The Chosen King Competition had subspace realms for Overseers and the Saint Cyclic Stellar Region had subspace realms where the top-tier figures used to observe the proceedings without being noticed. As this involved the principles of isolating space, relying on stable spatial energies, one of the three core principles of space-Stable, Fixed, and Chaotic-the higher one's cultivation base, the easier establishing these subspace realms became.
They were often temporary and dispersed into a wad of pure spatial energy after their purpose was completed, leaving very little evidence of their existence.
There was the most commonly known world apart from the world: World Realms. These realms were formed by using the principle of hollowing out to an even greater extent, but these unique realms were connected through Fixed Space which often acted as a bridge to Stable Space, the existing space that could be largely considered the 'default' space that nearly everyone was born in.
These world realms emulate the qualities of the outside, stable world by opening up a channel or series of channels for the inpouring of mana or other natural energies and essences; they could freely possess the qualities of a 'world' in the most natural sense.
The Devil War Realm which housed the Four Extreme Continents and the lives of countless cultivators was classified as a World Realm. These world realms required a great degree of effort to create, as they didn't just need channels that siphoned off mana and energies to properly emulate, they needed an artificial or natural core that properly replicated the properties of a Solar Star. Moreover, even the weakest of these cores when detonated could unleash power equivalent to a Starlord's self-detonation.
For Realmlords, creating these realms could take centuries. For Ascended beings, creating these realms could take hours. They often encapsulated a cultivator's entire legacy and lifetime worth of effort. However, should these channels lose their connection and the beings inside lose their ability to escape, these realms would soon crumble and silently dissipate along with potentially millions or billions of lives within them tragically.
Similar to the creation of world realms, secret realms could be born. These were smaller realms that did not have channels to the outside world. Some secret realms don't even have artificial or natural cores replacing Solar Stars, only stabilized using fixed space principles. Instead, these realms had built-in formations that manifested light, heat, and air from external and material objects. They absorb mana, energies, and essences from external materials via formations and arrays and were used to either create temporary safe havens or blessed cultivation grounds.
However, these three types of realms were far from the limitations of realms. The Battlefield was a gargantuan Chaos Realm. The rewarding area for the Battlefield was a tiny-sized Chaos Realm while the Nexus Battlefield was a Chaos Realm as well. These points in realms existed in the sea of Chaotic Space, a literal mess of spatial energies without direction, focus, distance, or shape, they were abnormally difficult to pinpoint or enter without specific coordinates, and very difficult to sense by even powerful Ascended beings at the Ascended Saint Phase.
There were common cases where an unsuspecting or foolish individual entered the sea of chaotic space for a mere moment and left millions of miles away, sometimes trillions of miles. Without certain regulations and limitations established, Chaotic Space was the epitome of chaos. Using these principles of space, cultivators could establish Stellar Transit Light that could send one across incomparably vast distances within a matter of moments.
The fact that Wei Wuyin had spent so long in the Stellar Transit Light while traversing to the Battlefield enough to grasp some of the principles of its amalgamation using a combination of fixed and chaotic space showcased the sheer distance that existed between the previous location of Grand Cyclic Stellar Region and the Battlefield. It was mind-boggling.
There were abnormal realms that were etched out by time. The Neo-Dawn Vortex-Zone emulated a temporal altering subspace where time itself flows differently to all within it. The Time Vortex wasn't specifically a realm, but a raw amalgamation of distorted and chaotic time within a World Realm, yet there were entire realms where time was frozen called Stasis Realms or time existing in reverse known as Regression Realms.
Most realms exist on the spectrum of 'Present Time' and are therefore always consistent with the flow of time within Fixed Space, as if running in a parallel line. The River of Time's unique space that Wei Wuyin faced two other versions of himself entered was also a type of 'abnormal' realm.
Amongst these realms, there was a rare type of realm that the vast, vast, vast majority of cultivators within the Ancient Sealed Region or the Azure-Prime Galactic Region understood-the Stellar Nest. Or to be more specific, a Void Nesting Realm.
These realms were disgustingly difficult to locate, more so than Chaos Realms, as they didn't just involve the principles of Space or oddly augmented by temporal flows, but they involved principles of 'The Void'.
Wei Wuyin was one of the rare few who entered 'The Void' and survived to tell the tale, solely due to his True Void Dragon Bloodline. The first time he had tried to use the Infinite Void Wings carelessly to escape the Bloodforge Continent after a delusional madwoman exploded the only existing Void Gate, or more accurately, Spatial Gate that opened Spatial Portals largely misnamed as Void Gates absent of true Void Energy, resulted in him entering 'The Void'.
The Void was a world of infinite information and was intricately linked with 'The World' that Wei Wuyin confronted during his Realm World Astral Tribulation and the World's Trend that Wei Wuyin often derives insight from using his Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity's Eye of Truth. The Eye of Truth seems to be able to properly organize and extrapolate relevant information about events, to an extent that Wei Wuyin wasn't entirely sure of how it functioned.
Wei Wuyin sometimes recalled that all he had absorbed back then was the information about a single particle that composed air and it involved everywhere that particle had entered, the countless transformations it experienced from the beginning, and potentially endless possibilities for its future and end. He had been overloaded by an unfathomable amount of information from a single particle...of air.
Moreover, he underwent a strange distortion of space and time and essentially had his existence lag, slowly forming as a skeleton with only the most quintessential parts of him, and slowly filling up as if his existence was delayed and reformed bit by bit. It was a horrifying sight to witness for all involved.
Additionally, he had traversed The Void to bring the Four Extreme Continent away safely, shielding those on the continent using the Infinite Void Wings all those years ago. If not for Eden's ability of the Mind Dao allowing it to block and sever off the vast information of The Void, his Sea of Consciousness exploding wasn't a far off possibility in both scenarios.
A Void Nestling Realm was quite literally within an isolated portion of The Void. Creating one required the usage of a treasure of Void Energy and time. A lot of time. The Stellar Nest was the prison of the Demonic Sovereign and forged by the Supreme Heavenly Treasure, the Endless Void Mirror. If not for the rules of the 'game' and an exertion of the Demonic Sovereign's powers from within, the sporadically shifting exits and entrances of the Stellar Nest wouldn't exist.
If not for Wei Wuyin's Void Anchor Bloodline Ability, he would never have been able to accurately pinpoint the location of the Stellar Nest even if he had the Minor Law of Space and Time with his current cultivation. This wasn't due to the Laws' lack of strength or profound abilities, but solely due to the 'information' and 'endless' components of The Void. If entering Chaotic Space for a single moment could launch you across space for trillions of miles, then The Void could only be described as even more chaotic and unpredictable.
However, there existed small pockets of Void Nestling Realms, and the only saving grace was that these pockets were located within the region of the Endless Void Mirror, so their movements were limited, far unlike in the vast world beyond. Sometimes, these smaller pockets of Void Nestling Realms would manifest.
This was one of the great dangers of the Void-Blank Space and Dark Void-Vanishing Points. Those who entered and never returned. If they didn't lead to the Stellar Nest, they led elsewhere.
During his alternate life's timeline, the Wei Wuyin who was suave and graceful as a picturesque gentleman had lost his kindred spirit to the machinations of a sinister, conniving figure. Despite his status at the time, he had only learned of the tragic incident after, and solely due to possessing some minor control over the Endless Void Mirror. Frustratingly enough, he still hadn't entered the Void Nestling Realm where it happened before meeting their end at the hands of his younger self.
It wasn't that he hadn't entered any Void Nestling Realm, but there were too many. Moreover, it wasn't difficult to re-enter the same Void Nestling Realm believing it to be a different realm! To be exact, that debonair version of himself had found and entered Void Nestling Realms fourteen times, and out of those fourteen times, he had only truly entered three.
Of course, this wasn't entirely his fault. After Kratos' demise at the hands of Liu Yinlan, he lost a large portion of his ability to differentiate them. While the current Wei Wuyin wouldn't have this issue, finding them was still nigh-impossibly difficult.
Normally.
With the Imperial Law's grasp over the entirety of the Ancient Sealed Region and his interactions with the Spirit of the Endless Void Mirror's Endless Purgatory, an innate Void Nestling Realm, and a secondary prison, Wei Wuyin could establish a Void Anchor anywhere.
Anywhere!
At least, within his range of 'conquest'.
Since none resisted his grand declaration of conquest, the full extent of the Minor Imperial Law went into effect, and coinciding this with Kratos' Bloodline Abilities-Void Anchor and Void Portal Manifestation via Void Energy-Wei Wuyin could enter any of the Void Nestling Realms at will.
During the recent hours, he was scouring each of them, all 873 of them, for the aura of his kindred spirit. His good mood earlier was solely because he had found it!
He had found her!
The entire world was dimly lit, as if selectively deprived of any radiance of joy or hope. There seemed to be no limit to its skies or horizons. It trudged on endlessly and endlessly, perhaps never cycling back to any single point no matter how far one traversed.
This seemingly limitless land was an indistinct mixture of chaotic environments of bizarre colors and irregular geography. Some resembled horrors out of the strangest of minds and others were far more mundane, easily dismissed with a glance such as barren earth or a small grassy mound. However, the longer one stared at any one area, the stronger a shifty feeling one would have as if the entire area was coming in and out of existence.
Those familiar with the Ancient Sealed Regions might know of these specific locations ravaged by time or incomplete as if barely worked on, including monumental buildings or palaces. The Heaven's Sky Palace, for example, was present somewhere in this world, dilapidated and aged as if by a million years.
Just above it, hovering parallel was a floating city that was half-completed with the newest of materials. The most distinct was a golden cow statue that seemed to have been recently dipped in gold standing at two hundred feet in height. The entire space made it difficult to gauge any of the cardinal directions. Every direction seemed like north and every direction seemed not north. The feeling was indescribably surreal.
An unstable Void Nestling Realm was an amalgamation of information both of the long-passed past and potentially the coming future. Within the next moment, the Heaven's Sky Palace would vanish and the city would transform into a humble cottage rightside up, simply hovering above a thick, grey cloud as if it's always been there.
While these things unfolded throughout the world, a certain area was thoroughly different. The chaos of it had seemingly been refined out, bearing a strong resemblance to the Stellar Nest's ever-consistent environment.
The region was gargantuan to an extreme, containing dozens of colorful trees that were as thick and tall as trees depicted in myth said to contain all of life within, with each composed of a different incredible material. One was of translucent bark and green veins. Another was of flowing lava. The types were numerous and all were different.
The smell in the air was distinctly bloody. Any who took the slightest of sniffs would taste iron instantly.
Directly between these dozens of trees, one man and one beast appeared without warning but not without purpose.
