“The soul armaments used by a soul refiner are quite wicked, aren’t they...”

Bai Yunfei had to suppress a sigh. Just thinking about these demonic armaments felt like a wonder to him. Was the black needle Mo Ni used also a demonic armament then?

“Whether they’re a demonic armament or Regalia, they’re still soul armaments in the end. It’s all dependent on the user...”

In the end, Bai Yunfei decided to put away this demonic armament for future use. It was powerful, after all, there wasn’t a need to give up on such a weapon, and neither did Bai Yunfei wanted to destroy it for being a demonic armament.

Powerful equipment needed to be upgraded. It was just the natural order of things. And since manually upgrading these soul armaments would provide more soul compatibility, Bai Yunfei decided to slowly upgrade them one by one, even if it meant spending more time and energy.

As Bai Yunfei expected, manually upgrading a high-earth tier soul armament was quite difficult. It had been a challenge to get the soul armament to +10, but getting it to +11...

“Upgrade.”

Suddenly, Bai Yunfei’s right hand jerked and swiped at the space above the soul armament!

Upgrade Level: +11

Attack: 8000

Additional Attack: 5200

Soul Compatibility: 20%

Equipment Effect 1: Absorb the blood of those slain and temporarily gain a 30% increase in attack.

+10 Additional Effect: Pay a blood price to increase the power of the user and item.

Gain 1% of attack and 2% increase to overall stats for every percentage of blood taken. Duration ends when no more blood is given.

Upgrade Requirement: 400 Soulpoints

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“Phew...just barely did it.” Bai Yunfei heaved a sigh of relief upon successfully upgrading the soul armament. It had almost been a failure until he managed to just barely alter the outcome. For that, Bai Yunfei was relieved.

“I still need more practice...I need to be able to guarantee a high-heaven tier soul armament being able to be upgraded to +11. As for the Regalias...I’ll have to find a guaranteed upgrade stone...”

Giving one last sigh, Bai Yunfei turned his attention to the newly-upgraded +11 demonic armament.

“As expected of a ‘demonic armament’,” Bai Yunfei muttered in distaste upon seeing the additional effect, “this additional effect is quite...ruthless.”

The equipment effect allowed the demonic armament to drain the blood of an enemy. The additional effect allowed the demonic armament to drain the blood of its user. This was without a doubt a demonic armament every person should fear.

“Its stats are already over ten thousand, but activating the additional effect could mean the attack can go up to...even twenty thousand, doesn’t it?! With a value like that...” Bai Yunfei himself began to feel a little frightful of the sword. These stats were something that was comparable to a Regalia—not even the Soul Sentinel Scarf would be able to defend against such an attack.

“Since you’re a demonic armament that feeds on blood, I’ll call you the ‘Vampiric Demon Edge’!”

And now that he was done upgrading and naming the item, Bai Yunfei stored it away into his ring.

“Oh?”

Bai Yunfei perked his head up. He heard someone calling him from the outside while he was cleaning up the soul armaments. Quickly finishing up the task, he disappeared from the Core World.

“What’s the matter, assistant headmaster Wu?”

Bai Yunfei appeared right beside Wu Dijian and Tang Xinyun.

“What took you so long?” Wu Dijian asked rhetorically. “I just wanted to point out that we’re already by the edge of the Qimang Mountains. Once we fly over the Demon’s Rift Valley we’ll be within the range of the Soulbeast Forest.”

Following Wu Dijian’s pointing, Bai Yunfei looked over to the land in front where a large ‘crack’ could be seen. It was extremely wide and looked bottomless—almost as though it was leading to the underworld. This was a place that seemed to draw people in just by looking down at it...

The Demon’s Rift Valley was the continent’s largest valley. No one knew how deep it went, but rumors had it that this hole went as deep as the center of the planet. People talked about how the chaotic energy that flowed down there was so concentrated that it took on a watery-form. Not even a Soul Emperor would be able to survive a trip down there...

Bai Yunfei was a well-traveled person, but not even he could stop himself from being awed by this site. “Let’s fly over then. We can rest once we reach the Soulbeast Forest and continue the next day into the deeper parts.”

The group teleported several times to reach a part of the forest on the other side. Not a single class six or seven soulbeast was there, though there were a few class one soulbeasts.

They were west of the Soulbeast Forest now, a place where hardly any person would be. Gazing off into the distance, Bai Yunfei could see a large mountain range that blocked off the view of everything on the other side—a very large mountain range he saw once before.

This was the Skyward Mountains, the geographical piece of land that divided the Soulbeast Forest from the class five area and the innermost parts of it. If the group wanted to travel to the innermost parts of the Soulbeast Forest, then they would have to travel through the Crack in the Sky.

The next evening.

“We’re here! It’s the Crack in the Sky!

Bai Yunfei exclaimed upon exiting from another distortion in space. After teleporting along the Skyward Mountains for half a day, the group had finally arrived at the Crack in the Sky.

Again, Bai Yunfei could hardly hold back a sigh of awe when he looked at the terrain. He was as powerful as a Soul Emperor now, but even then he still couldn’t comprehend how strong one would have to be to cleave a path through the Skywards Mountain as Wu Tianhun had done here...

There was also the memories Bai Yunfei had of this place. He shuddered just thinking about the bewitching fox that had nearly harmed him here. It was only because of that soulbeast that Bai Yunfei was able to craft the powerful Charm Bracelet.

It was also here that he met the thunderfire wolf—how was the wolf? He was of the wolf clan, perhaps Bai Yunfei would have the opportunity to see him here?

Some time was taken to travel through the Crack in the Sky, but the group was now back in the Soulbeast Forest. A nostalgic look crept up in Bai Yunfei’s eyes, he remembered just how life was like when he was a mere Soul Exalt here.

Likewise, Xiao Qi was excitedly flitting through the skies as he regaled Xiao Bai and Tang Xinyun with the stories of his experiences here.

Though the group knew the wolf clan was here, they didn’t know the specific location. The Soulbeast Forest was partitioned in so many ways that made the heads of the humans spin. All they could do was take one step at a time to get deeper into the class seven area and ‘ask’ for directions from one of them.

But he remembered meeting the Thunder Wolf King—head of the thunderfire wolves—before. The Thunder Wolf King had power within these parts, so that had to be a clue on the whereabouts of the wolf clan. Bai Yunfei was sure that they’d find the clan if they followed their current pathing to where the Thunder Wolf King was.

————————

Something felt different to Bai Yunfei. It stuck like a sore thumb compared to his last experience here...he didn’t see a single adventurer team.

Perhaps it was because of the conflict on the continent? Many people surely had to be tangled up in their respective disputes. Praestia Pass had to be closed off for the meanwhile, so hardly any new adventurers were allowed into the Soulbeast Forest.

That said, there were still plenty of soulbeasts. Xiao Qi’s aura did a good enough job deterring most from drawing close, so the group was able to walk deeper into the forest without trouble.

It didn’t even take more than a day for them to get through the class six area without interruption.

“Aoo!!!”

“Boom boom!!”

It was when the group was trying to figure out which direction to take when they heard it. The first sound that was distinctly different from the average ambiance.

“That’s the cry of a wolf! There’s a battle nearby!!” Bai Yunfei’s head snapped towards the source, “Let’s go!”

He ran towards the source with everyone else following him closely from behind.