The great eagle circled high above, weaving through the very clouds; this domain belonged to the Golden-Eyed Eagle, and the surrounding vultures and sand eagles automatically gave way, daring not to trespass its boundary. The Golden-Eyed Eagle’s gaze, with its piercing gold pupils, possessed a soul-shattering ability, marking it as one of the true overlords of the earth and sky. Circling once more, the eagle suddenly dove.

What immense force accompanied the Eagle’s Dive!

With the dive, the eagle plummeted from the great heights directly toward the ground. On the desert floor were two Sand Demons, one at the sixth level and one at the seventh level of Qi Condensation. Sand Demons were creatures that could melt into the sands given a little time—demons of the deep earth. Their direct combat strength wasn't superior to that of an Asura, but within the desert, they were terrifyingly powerful.

Before merging with the sand, the Sand Demons were squat, their bodies uniformly pale yellow, sometimes even wearing simple shorts and going bare-chested, much like humans.

These two Sand Demons had initially been surveying their surroundings, completely oblivious to the presence above them. Suddenly, they sensed a violent rush of wind. Both demons snapped their heads up, only to see the colossal Golden-Eyed Eagle descending in a furious stoop from the heavens. The Golden-Eyed Eagle, one of the desert's aerial tyrants—the Sand Demons attempted to flee, tried to dissolve into the sands, but the eagle arrived too swiftly.

Its wings, harder than forged steel, ripped through the air with a massive roar as they slammed heavily into the Qi Condensation sixth-level Sand Demon. The creature was instantly crushed violently mid-air, spitting blood madly, its fate uncertain. The other, the Qi Condensation seventh-level demon, hadn't even managed to react before the Golden-Eyed Eagle snatched it up.

Fly!

The Sand Demon was dragged skyward, rising higher and higher. The demon was struck with absolute horror. Before reaching the Body Tempering stage, very few races possessed the ability to fly, and now it was being hauled up by the Golden-Eyed Eagle to a height of a hundred zhang. To be carried so high—if dropped from this altitude, it would surely suffer grievous injury.

The Golden-Eyed Eagle kept ascending: a hundred and fifty zhang, two hundred zhang, two hundred and fifty zhang, three hundred zhang.

The Qi Condensation seventh-level Sand Demon desperately clung to the eagle’s talons, but with a vicious shake, the Golden-Eyed Eagle hurled the creature out toward the desert. What consequence awaited a fall from three hundred zhang? A single, piercing shriek of agony drifted up from below, then silence.

Needless to say, it was dead.

Lu Yuan, seated on the eagle's back, smiled. This was truly a relaxed and enjoyable method of hunting demons. At first, he thought he would have to trouble himself scouring every corner for monsters, but now, there was no need. A fierce bird like the Golden-Eyed Eagle could easily locate demons on the ground, ones smaller than a pinprick.

The routine was always the same: dive, snatch the demon, ascend to great height, and drop.

The Golden-Eyed Eagle performed this trick with practiced ease.

Of course, just as the eagle reached its apex height, Lu Yuan would draw his sword in a flash of lightning, slicing off the tokens that signified the demon’s identity—like the bone spur that had jutted from the Sand Demon’s back moments before. Possessing these tokens allowed him to claim rewards at the Tenth Hall’s Tenth Branch, or exchange them with the Great Jin Imperial Court.

Lu Yuan sat upon the eagle's back now, his Yangwu Sword already sheathed. He raised his hand and took out his wine gourd.

He took a deep draft. Refreshing!

Given Lu Yuan’s nature, forcing him into the lightless, dangerous mining tunnels day after day to hunt, training without rest, would have been impossible. This current scenario—sitting on an eagle’s back while the Golden-Eyed Eagle hunted for him—perfectly suited Lu Yuan’s inherently lazy temperament. Only when a demon proved particularly formidable would Lu Yuan personally draw his sword.

Not long ago, a Body Tempering stage Sand Demon had perished beneath Lu Yuan’s blade.

Essentially, this pairing—man and eagle—though perhaps not invincible, could certainly traverse the desert unimpeded, masters of the land and sky.

Whoosh!

The Golden-Eyed Eagle continued its flight. Lu Yuan leaned back on the vast expanse of the eagle’s back, looking up at the clouds.

He had watched clouds while lying on the ground, while perched in trees, while flying in the sky, and even while sitting upon the white clouds. But he had never lain on an eagle’s back to watch them. Now, seeing the clouds from this vantage point, he felt they were rushing backward at an astonishing pace, constantly shifting their forms—a viewing experience entirely different from any other.

He realized he had truly seen clouds in many, many places.

Those faint, ethereal, drifting clouds—as the eagle flew through them, the man on its back felt enveloped in mist. These clouds floated lightly with the wind, refusing any fixed shape…

Those dense, heavily stacked white clouds, which seemed static in the sky, yet shifted from one configuration to another in the span of a breath…

The thin layer, almost non-existent, known as cirrus…

The setting sun dyed the clouds a deep crimson, floating like blood across the firmament—a dazzling dance of blood clouds…

When the sky turned utterly black, the clouds were tinged with only a faint grey—the clouds of the deep night…

When purple mist stretched for a thousand li, staining the clouds violet…

Then came the fiery sunsets—sometimes half purple and half yellow, sometimes half grey and half lilac, pear, or eggplant purple, a spectacle of ever-changing, seven-hued radiance, as if the heavens were ablaze…

The dark, sooty clouds choked off the last sliver of light, as if someone had smeared a layer of ink across the celestial canvas. No, not just one layer; as the storm clouds piled higher and higher, obscuring the stars layer upon layer, it seemed too much ink had been used—the darkness was almost dripping onto the ground… At this moment, lying on the eagle’s back, Lu Yuan suddenly understood what a cloud truly was.

Unfettered, supremely free, constantly changing in response to its surroundings, yet the essence at its core remained immutable—this was the cloud.

Lu Yuan then perceived how closely his own temperament mirrored that of the cloud. The success he had achieved was heavily influenced by the fact that he had begun his cultivation with the Cloud Dragon Heart Method and mastered the Wind and Cloud One Hundred and Eight Swords. His inner nature aligned too perfectly with them.

Lu Yuan rose to his feet now, drawing the Yangwu Sword from its sheath. He began to move the blade, not quickly, but languidly, his movements easy and unrestrained. At this stage, his swordsmanship bore not the slightest resemblance to the orthodox Wind and Cloud One Hundred and Eight Swords; it had become entirely Lu Yuan’s spontaneous expression.

Initially, the Golden-Eyed Eagle showed a touch of fear, as a flying sword danced just inches above its back—a slight misplacement and it would be injured. But gradually, the eagle realized it had no cause for apprehension, for it no longer looked like a sword being swung.

It looked like the clouds it so often tore through while breaking the void.

Lu Yuan refined his techniques inch by inch, adapting them bit by bit, until his movements seamlessly merged with that very image of a cloud. Taking a deep breath, Lu Yuan realized he had finally forged the Transcendence Sword Intent of Cloud Intent, moving beyond mere Sword Intent. Previously, his strikes could be like the wind; now, they could be like the cloud. Every type of Transcendence Intent was profoundly difficult to achieve, but Lu Yuan had observed clouds in so many places, and this moment of lying on the eagle's back, watching them drift, had sparked the final insight: he had grasped the Transcendence Sword Intent of Cloud.

With this, he had mastered two Transcendence Sword Intents within the Wind and Cloud One Hundred and Eight Swords, bringing that sword art to its absolute peak.

“Ahhh…” Lu Yuan shouted toward the heavens with unrestrained joy in the sky, and the Golden-Eyed Eagle, sensing the ease of the youth upon its back, echoed the call with a loud cry. Man and eagle roared toward the heavens in unison.

Lu Yuan achieved the Transcendence Sword Intent of Cloud Intent four months after entering the Tenth Hall’s Tenth Branch. During these four months, he maintained his usual habit of drinking while cultivating, and the effort was not wasted; he had achieved another moment of sudden enlightenment, which was, in reality, the culmination of years of accumulated effort meeting a spark of chance.

Lu Yuan settled into a cross-legged posture on the eagle’s back, and the Golden-Eyed Eagle instinctively slowed its pace, no longer the lightning-fast rush of before. Lu Yuan felt that his spiritual power was subtly on the verge of a breakthrough. He practiced the Cloud Dragon Heart Method, which, as previously mentioned, was intrinsically linked to the Wind and Cloud One Hundred and Eight Swords. An overly high cultivation level in the Heart Method would spur the advancement of the sword techniques, just as exceptionally strong sword techniques would boost the Heart Method.

Indeed, Lu Yuan’s current power level was quite respectable; at nineteen, he had reached the second level of Body Tempering. However, compared to his mastery of the sword, his power lagged far behind.

Now that his sword art had reached the pinnacle of the Cloud system—the Transcendence Cloud Sword Intent—his Heart Method was naturally pulled upward. He felt his own spiritual power growing stronger. The four months of cultivation had carried him from the early stages of Body Tempering Level Two to the midpoint.

And now, driven by the breakthrough to the Transcendence level in Cloud Sword Intent, his spiritual power surged further, reaching the apex of the second level—the refinement of the Five Viscera and Six Bowels. These internal organs were now completely tempered, incredibly robust and condensed; every breath could absorb vast quantities of spiritual energy.

He no longer needed to worry about his swordsmanship. His focus now shifted entirely to his spiritual power: how to advance to the third level of Body Tempering, the stage of Sun and Moon Essence.

The hardest obstacles in Body Tempering were not this particular bottleneck; the true trial lay between the seventh level—tempering the brain—and the eighth level—controlling the sword in flight. Compared to that, advancing from the second to the third level of Sun and Moon Essence was relatively minor, though still not easily achieved.

Despite wishing to capitalize on this sword technique breakthrough to force his way to the third level, after circulating his energy for a time, Lu Yuan discovered the attempt to break through had failed.

Failure was failure, and Lu Yuan shrugged. One must be content. To master the Transcendence Cloud Sword Intent within four months, achieving complete command over it, and simultaneously propelling his spiritual power to the peak of Body Tempering Level Two—that was already excellent progress.

Lu Yuan lay back on the eagle’s broad wing and took another drink. The Golden-Eyed Eagle sensed the shift and accelerated again, beating its wings fiercely through the sky. The eagle loved the velocity, the feeling of churning wind and cloud beneath its rapidly moving pinions!

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