How to put it? When a few people looked up at him, he felt a little smug—youth, who among them could maintain perfect composure, not allowing for a slight surge of pride now and then? But when many people looked up at him, too many eager gazes, he couldn't stand it either.

It was just like when he was receiving the first-place prize in the competition—over a thousand people below the stage were staring at him. It was too frightening; he couldn't handle that kind of shock. As soon as he took the reward, he flew away.

Indeed, flying up into the sky. There was no rush to summon the small eagle. Having flown to such a great height, he saw a faint wisp of white cloud, and with a swift movement, he landed on it, sitting atop the white cloud.

This time, the rewards totaled four items. Two medium-sized Cloud Beasts, one medium-grade spatial artifact, Heaven’s Purity Water, and Crimson Flame Fire. Of course, the other three rewards were all hidden within this medium-sized spatial artifact—the Minor Sumeru Pouch.

Sumeru, the immensely great mountain, traditionally said to be eighty-four thousand yojana high. Minor Sumeru Pouch; this name was quite grand. When Lu Yuan’s divine sense probed into the pouch, he discovered this spatial magic treasure was indeed vast, vast—as large as two wooden cabins.

The previous Asura Pouch was much smaller than this Minor Sumeru Pouch; they were not in the same league at all. Spatial artifacts were quite expensive, and the larger the Asura Pouch, the more precious it was. For this Minor Sumeru Pouch, the internal space was as large as two wooden cabins, which was considered immensely large; generally, only those at the Longevity stage would possess such a large spatial artifact.

Lu Yuan was instantly overjoyed and proceeded to examine the other rewards. Inside, there was a Spirit Sealing Tablet. Spirit Sealing Tablets were rather common items and not expensive in the Cultivation World.

He took the Spirit Sealing Tablet out of the Minor Sumeru Pouch and sent his divine sense into it. Inside, he saw two foxes—yes, two incredibly beautiful, white-furred foxes. Cloud Foxes!

Two of them! Right, during the Five Peaks Grand Competition, he had obtained a large Cloud Beast, a Cloud Tiger, but obtaining a large Cloud Beast was a matter of chance. Obtaining two snow-white furred Cloud Foxes was also quite satisfactory.

In the Minor Sumeru Pouch, there were also two cups. One cup was inscribed with the ancient seal script characters “Tian Jing” (Heaven’s Purity), and the other with “Chi Yan” (Crimson Flame). He didn't know when the custom of using ancient seal script became popular in the Cultivation World; many places favored writing in ancient seal script.

Lu Yuan absolutely detested this habit; it had forced him to learn an entire new script, wasting countless hours of sleep just to study it. Crimson Flame Fire was famed as a fire that never extinguished. This type of flame was extremely useful when forging flying swords, spirit swords, and other magic treasures.

Even though Lu Yuan was a pure sword cultivator and didn't forge magic treasures himself, it would be of immense use when he eventually forged flying or spirit swords. Lu Yuan opened the cup and saw a faint, ethereal flame burning quietly within. Crimson Flame Fire was extremely precious; unless the essence of the fire within was entirely consumed during forging, it would basically never extinguish.

In the other cup was Heaven’s Purity Water. When Lu Yuan opened it, the water inside was incomparably clear—so clear that it seemed he could look directly into a person's heart. There wasn't much water, only one large cupful, but even this large cupful was immensely precious.

He took out the cup holding the Heaven’s Purity Water from the Minor Sumeru Pouch. This cup, smooth all over, was made of some unknown material, capable of holding both the Heaven’s Purity Water and the Crimson Flame Fire—it was likely a treasure in itself. Although the Huashan Immortal Sect had taught some introductions to common treasures, Lu Yuan had often dozed off during lessons, so he hadn't learned everything.

That was normal, ordinary. Lu Yuan flipped his hand and took out the Spirit Sealing Tablet from the Asura Pouch, the one sealing the Blood Cloud Spirit Beasts. This tablet contained four Blood Cloud Spirit Wolves and five Blood Cloud Spirit Hounds.

Medium-sized spirit beasts were not that easy to acquire. The reason the Daoist from the Blood Sword Sect had four Blood Cloud Spirit Beasts was that he used the Spirit Beast Blood Sacrifice Art, a technique that refined blood using humans. Normally, even cultivators at the seventh or eighth level of the Body Tempering stage would possess four medium-sized spirit beasts; cultivators at the second or third level of the Body Tempering stage simply didn't have such rich assets.

Lu Yuan summoned the four Blood Cloud Spirit Wolves and five Blood Cloud Spirit Hounds. The five blood-red spirit beasts surrounded Lu Yuan. Each one was incredibly ferocious.

It was said that spirit beasts above the large tier would attack people autonomously and possess their own souls, making them difficult to subdue. Lu Yuan moved his hand, using his Yang Wu Sword to scoop up a drop of Heaven’s Purity Water and flick it onto a Blood Cloud Spirit Hound. The hound shrieked, and the blood color of its body began to fade, but clearly, one drop of Heaven’s Purity Water was ineffective.

Lu Yuan lightly flicked his wrist and sent four more drops onto the hound. The Blood Cloud Spirit Hound finally began to transform completely—the blood color of its entire body constantly receded as it incessantly cried out. After a moment, it transformed into a large white dog.

If the Blood Cloud Dog just now was fierce and brutal, the snow-white Cloud Dog now looked adorable, its expression bewildered, which was quite a sight. Well, small Cloud Beasts generally required about five measures of Heaven’s Purity Water, though this wasn't fixed. It wasn't that all small Cloud Beasts were of the same caliber.

For instance, the Cloud Dog could provide far more Cloud Elemental Qi than a Cloud Rabbit; it generally depended on size and tier. For example, the Cloud Dog’s size was not much smaller than a Cloud Fox, but since it was classified as a small Cloud Beast, its Cloud Qi absorption capacity was naturally far inferior to that of the Cloud Fox. Lu Yuan used the Yang Wu Sword to scoop up ten drops of Heaven’s Purity Water and threw them all onto the Blood Cloud Spirit Wolves.

The wolves shrieked incessantly. Parts of their originally blood-red bodies began to turn white—still not enough? Lu Yuan twisted his wrist, and his sword flicked out another five drops of Heaven’s Purity Water.

Finally, fifteen drops of Heaven’s Purity Water were sprinkled out, transforming the Blood Cloud Spirit Wolves into snow-white Cloud Wolves as well. The Blood Cloud Spirit Wolves were quite vicious, but the transformed wolves looked like larger dogs, quite docile and cute. Lu Yuan made up his mind: one Blood Cloud Spirit Wolf required fifteen drops of Heaven’s Purity Water, and one Blood Cloud Spirit Hound required five drops.

This meant that currently, a total of eighty-five drops of Heaven’s Purity Water would be needed. The cup of Heaven’s Purity Water he possessed would still leave a large amount remaining after purifying all nine spirit beasts, which he could save for next time. If he encountered another Daoist from the Blood Sword Sect next time, he was prepared to make a huge profit.

Why not? The North Peak and the Blood Sword Sect both used Cloud-element cultivation methods; one was Orthodox, and the other Demonic. Lu Yuan found himself increasingly fond of the Orthodox path’s maxim: "Encounter a Demonic cultivator, draw your sword and kill." It was truly an excellent regulation, especially since killing them yielded substantial rewards—that reward was even more wonderful.

Right, now he needed to tally exactly how many Cloud Beasts he possessed. He gathered the Cloud Beasts from his various Spirit Sealing Tablets into one single tablet. Lu Yuan counted his Cloud Beasts.

First, the large Cloud Beasts: a total of one, the Cloud Tiger won from the Five Peaks Grand Competition. The Cloud Tiger remained as imposing as ever. In the Spirit Sealing Tablet, it let out a tiger’s roar, and none of the surrounding Cloud Beasts dared to approach—truly exhibiting majestic tiger presence, its tiger spirit still strong.

Next were the medium-sized Cloud Beasts: from this competition, he gained two Cloud Foxes, and from the Blood Sword Sect Daoist, he had acquired four Cloud Wolves. As for the small Cloud Beasts, there were five Cloud Hounds, five Cloud Cats, and five Cloud Rabbits, each from a different source. This was the total count of his Cloud-element spirit beasts—a full twenty-two creatures.

Now he consolidated all twenty-two into one Spirit Sealing Tablet and probed it with his divine sense. These twenty-two Cloud Beasts were generally quite peaceful. Lu Yuan tossed spirit stones in.

The Cloud Tiger swallowed them but remained incredibly arrogant. The Cloud Foxes shimmered with beautiful postures. The Cloud Wolves looked like large dogs.

The Cloud Hounds looked naturally simple-minded, the Cloud Cats mewed like house cats, lazily stretching, while the Cloud Rabbits nestled affectionately at Lu Yuan’s feet. It was truly an interesting collection of Cloud-element spirit beasts. In fact, above the Great Spirit Beast tier, there were Giant Spirit Beasts, Exotic Beasts, Legendary Spirit Beasts, Mythical Spirit Beasts, and Ancient Spirit Beasts.

It would be wonderful if he possessed the later tiers of Cloud Beasts, but the higher-level spirit beasts would automatically attack humans. In the historical records of the Great Jin Kingdom, a Legendary Spirit Beast had appeared tens of thousands of years ago—a Legendary Flame Spirit Beast that destroyed an entire town with a single impact. Therefore, even if he encountered an Exotic Beast-tier spirit beast, the likely outcome would still be being killed by it.

Spirit beasts are not always docile; later-stage spirit beasts are immensely powerful and formidable. Immediately, he felt a continuous stream of Cloud Elemental Qi surging into his body, causing his mana growth rate to more than double its previous speed. In fact, Lu Yuan’s original cultivation speed was already quite fast, and he already had quite a number of Cloud Beasts.

Now, gaining two Cloud Foxes, four Cloud Wolves, and five Cloud Hounds meant his mana cultivation speed was vastly quicker than before, allowing him to clearly feel his power constantly rising. Right, he still had another Spirit Sealing Tablet containing seven small Sand-element spirit beasts, which he could sell later to exchange for Cloud-element spirit beasts. Lu Yuan tossed items such as the Asura Beetle, the Scarlet Sand Flying Sword, and others into the Minor Sumeru Pouch.

As for the Asura Pouch, he designated it specifically for storing wine. The Minor Sumeru Pouch would hold his other miscellaneous items, magic treasures, flying swords, and spirit stones. Finally, the situation concerning the spatial artifact that had long constrained him was resolved.

For now? Of course, he took out a bottle of wine from the Asura Pouch, popped the mud seal, and started drinking it down. The taste of drinking while lying on a white cloud was distinctly different from drinking in a tavern.

Actually, down below, the Tenth Hall was also hosting various activities. Celebrations were a given, but the main focus was recruiting newcomers into the other Halls. The Five Immortal Alliance organized all this for the purpose of training new disciples, but Lu Yuan, at least for now, had no plans to join any other Hall of the Five Immortal Alliance; he intended to return to the North Peak.

Master's lifespan was growing shorter. The matter of joining other Halls of the Five Immortal Alliance would have to be postponed.