After concluding his discussions with Martial Uncle Fang Ru and Martial Uncle Chu Fei, Lu Yuan sought out a quiet side room to organize his spoils of war.

He had acquired several trophies from the Legacy Palace of Wusheng.

The first, naturally, was Spirit Stones. Counting them carefully, the stones gathered from the first four levels amounted to roughly a thousand. While this was a substantial number for most cultivators, for Lu Yuan, it was merely average; this haul wasn't particularly astonishing on its own.

The second acquisition was Battle Spirit Beasts, and their numbers were quite considerable.

The third was the Blood Cloud Spirit Beasts, spoils taken from the Twin Withered Daoists of the Blood Sword Sect. Given the great renown of the Twin Withered Daoists, their collection of Blood Cloud Spirit Beasts was naturally not small.

The fourth was the Cloud Dragon Heart Method. Lu Yuan had managed to master two more variations, bringing his total mastery of the ten Cloud Dragon Transformations to three. For context, the Venerable Yuan Yuan had only managed to master six of the ten transformations. Furthermore, due to mastering these two extra transformations, his spiritual power automatically surged from the early stage of the sixth level of Body Tempering, straight to the peak of that stage—Bone and Skin Refinement—instantly. At this moment, the elasticity of his skin was astonishing, and the hardness of his bones was equally incredible!

Ah yes, there was a fifth item: mastering the Sword Intent of Speed. Of course, this was something he achieved through his own efforts and had little to do with the Legacy Palace of Wusheng itself.

A full five sets of spoils!

These five categories of loot were truly astounding!

Without entering the Legacy Palace of Wusheng, he couldn't imagine how one could possibly gain such benefits. Even ten or twenty years of dedicated cultivation might not yield such rewards.

It had been immensely profitable!

While many other cultivators might still be dissatisfied that the so-called seven levels of the Wusheng Legacy Palace actually lacked a seventh level and thus the corresponding benefits, Lu Yuan felt no such way. For the Elder Wusheng to leave his accumulated possessions for them to venture forth and claim was already a tremendous act of grace.

The Elder Wusheng owed him nothing; having gained so much from him was already cause for deep gratitude.

How could he possibly blame the elder for the absence of the seventh level?

A person must know contentment.

Contentment brings perpetual joy.

Right, he should convert all those Battle Spirit Beasts into Cloud Beasts, and use the Pure Water of Heaven's Clarity to purify the Blood Cloud Spirit Beasts into Cloud-element Spirit Beasts. Converting the Battle Spirit Beasts into Cloud Beasts—if he had paraded such a massive number of Battle Spirit Beasts previously, the shopkeeper at the Spirit Beast market would surely have been flabbergasted. Even the largest establishment would be taken aback; only the largest cultivator market adjacent to the Great Jin Kingdom—which always dealt in massive quantities and wouldn't blink at such numbers—would remain unfazed. Any medium-sized cultivator market, however, would be astonished, as the sheer quantity of Battle Spirit Beasts was simply unbelievable.

However, by this time, everyone knew that the Wusheng Legacy Palace had yielded a significant haul of Battle Spirit Beasts. Thus, the surprise wouldn't be extreme—though surprise was still inevitable, as Lu Yuan’s haul was vast; only about two dozen people who entered had surpassed him in acquisition.

Incidentally, worried that his Pure Water of Heaven's Clarity might run short, Lu Yuan spent a high price at the cultivator market to acquire more of the purification agent.

Lu Yuan had purified Blood Cloud Spirit Beasts once before; repeating the process with the remaining creatures was now second nature. He quickly converted all the Blood Cloud Spirit Beasts into Cloud-element beasts. Counting his Cloud-element Spirit Beasts now, Lu Yuan was utterly stunned.

Large Cloud Beasts: Four Cloud Tigers, Eight Cloud Lions. Medium Cloud Beasts: Sixteen Cloud Wolves, Eighteen Cloud Foxes. Lesser Spirit Beasts: Ten Cloud Cats, Twenty Cloud Rabbits, Ten Cloud Dogs.

Essentially, by this point, the contribution of the Lesser Spirit Beasts to the supply of Cloud Qi was minimal; the main focus was on the Large and Medium Cloud Beasts, particularly the Large ones. Previously, Lu Yuan had only four Large Cloud Beasts, but this expedition into the Legacy Palace of Wusheng had added eight Cloud Lions.

These eight Cloud Lions were each exquisitely pure, incredibly fierce, yet strikingly beautiful.

Lu Yuan understood that following the events at the Wusheng Legacy Palace, his total number of Cloud-element Spirit Beasts was nearly triple what it had been before.

Under normal circumstances, entering the Legacy Palace without incident would not have yielded this many Cloud Beasts. It was only because Lu Yuan encountered the Daoists of the Blood Sword Sect and slew the Twin Withered Daoists that he now possessed this massive collection, roughly tripling his former count.

Consequently, the throughput of Cloud Qi was also about three times what it had been.

Before, Lu Yuan’s Cloud-element Spirit Beasts were already numerous, and the capacity for Cloud Qi throughput was immense, leading to extremely rapid cultivation speed.

Now, after the Wusheng Legacy Palace event, the throughput capacity was about three times greater, making his cultivation speed frighteningly fast. Lu Yuan even felt that the spiritual power he had only recently stabilized at the peak of the sixth level of Body Tempering—Bone and Skin Refinement—was beginning to stir restlessly, as if ready to breach the next barrier.

In truth, Lu Yuan’s innate talent for spiritual power cultivation was quite mediocre.

However, it was unavoidable now. He had too many Cloud-element Spirit Beasts; the throughput of Cloud Qi at every moment was staggering—too much, too vast, almost unbelievable. With such an overwhelmingly potent flow of cloud energy constantly entering his body, it would be bizarre if his spiritual power progression slowed down.

This location, the interior of the Tingyu Hermitage, was perfectly secure. Lu Yuan sat down and assumed the cross-legged posture.

His current stage was the sixth level of Body Tempering—Bone and Skin Refinement.

The seventh level of Body Tempering involved the refinement of the brain.

The seventh level, Brain Refinement, was universally acknowledged as preparation for the eighth level, Sword Flight Mastery. To remotely manipulate a long sword with mental power, one must first cultivate an immensely powerful spirit force through rigorous brain refinement.

Putting aside the eighth level of Sword Flight Mastery for a moment, breaking through to the seventh level, Brain Refinement, was no easy feat. This stage was significantly more challenging than the previous ones because those earlier levels focused on refining the internal organs, bones, skin, or blood—none of which required the same degree of meticulous precision as the brain.

Issues arising during the refinement of organs, bones, or blood were generally not critical. But problems during Brain Refinement could lead, at best, to agonizing headaches, and at worst, to mental derangement or even death. Fortunately, the method Lu Yuan practiced was the Cloud-element Heart Method. While the Cloud Method wasn't overwhelmingly aggressive in combat, its greatest virtue was its inherent flexibility; it was highly unlikely to cause self-damage. Even this notoriously perilous transition from the sixth to the seventh level of Body Tempering was not overly difficult for practitioners of the Cloud Method.

The easiest path to refining the brain was through the Cloud-element Heart Method.

Lu Yuan sat cross-legged and deliberately suppressed the flow rate of his internal Cloud spiritual power, making its circulation even slower than usual. This gentle flow edged toward the brain, with minute wisps of Cloud power entering the cerebral matter, commencing the breakthrough attempt.

Upon any sensation of pain in the brain from the influx of Cloud power, he immediately halted, withdrew, and sought a different path. He advanced step by step, using his own brain as the experimental ground, moving with extreme caution to avoid stimulating the organ too severely.

Whenever his brain fatigued, he paused to rest for a period.

A month passed. Lu Yuan continued his tireless cultivation. His control over his brain had improved considerably; he now knew precisely where the Cloud power could enter safely and where it would cause disruption. Furthermore, after this month of training, his brain’s tolerance had increased significantly. Correspondingly, the spiritual energy stimulated by this process had also grown. Lu Yuan was in no hurry, proceeding slowly and steadily.

He couldn't recall how much more time elapsed, but eventually, Lu Yuan felt as if a great door had been opened within his mind.

It was as if something deep within his consciousness was being liberated. At that very moment, countless streams of spiritual power burst forth from a sealed gate deep within his brain. The rate of spiritual power increase accelerated dramatically compared to before; at this juncture, his spiritual strength had multiplied by at least tenfold.

This, he realized, must be the legendary seventh level of Body Tempering—Brain Refinement!

This stage, rumored to be fraught with peril, was finally condensed and mastered.

Having perfected the seventh level of Body Tempering—Brain Refinement—Lu Yuan immediately emerged from seclusion. He mentioned nothing of his closed-door training, instead spending his days leisurely, enjoying simple pleasures and drinking wine.

A person needed training, but rest was equally essential.

Work and leisure must be balanced, and both taken in moderation. Naturally, Lu Yuan understood he favored the leisure aspect of life.

In the days that followed, since many core disciples of the Immortal Sects were still gathered at Wuling Mountain, there were inevitably some social functions. Since everyone was present, Lu Yuan participated in several of these gatherings among the core disciples, which were typically occasions for mutual exchange and friendship building.

Scholars enjoy gatherings where they compose and critique poetry.

Cultivators, on the other hand, enjoy sparring or demonstrating magical arts. Sometimes, instead of direct combat, they engaged in intellectual duels—such as devising solutions to counter extremely difficult sword moves, with participants taking pride in identifying the most unbreakable techniques. Lu Yuan, having ample free time, joined some of these debates, systematically dismantling the most complex sword techniques presented. Well, that was what boredom led to.

After spending some more time at the Wuling Immortal Sect, it was finally time to return to Mount Hua.

The grand ceremony for the transfer of leadership of the Wuling Immortal Sect and the matter of the Wusheng Legacy Palace had now reached a close.

In the subsequent period, Lu Yuan did not see Miss Zhong from the Great Qin Kingdom again.