Deep within the northern peak of the Crafting School. The stone doors to the belly of the mountain swung open wide to reveal Bai Yunfei striding in.

A figure materialized from the flames when Bai Yunfei appeared and quickly took on the form of Heavenfire.

“What is it, Yunfei?”

“Everything’s going well so far. Ah’Rui is fine, Dongfang Ming is dead, and his core is destroyed.”

“Very well then.” Heavenfire sniffed, “Not even death is good enough for the likes of him! And so goes for the demonic core. Such a thing is not meant to exist.”

“Senior Heavenfire,” Bai Yunfei spoke up, not willing to spend any more time on the superfluous details, “Let’s get started crafting. Master is slowly getting weaker, it’d unwise to stall any longer.”

“Indeed. Let us begin at once!”

Nodding, Bai Yunfei sat down on the ground and waved his hand. With a ‘bang’, the Dualflame Cauldron slammed down onto the ground in front of him. A stream of materials appeared out of thin air to float around the cauldron, among those materials were the Heaven’s Bloodtears and the dagger demon armament.

He was planning to ‘reforge’ the soul armament!

The cause of Zi Jin’s current plight was because of this dagger. To eliminate the dagger would be to eliminate the problem, but there wasn’t really an easy way to go about it. Upgrading it to +11 wouldn’t necessarily mean it’d become his soulbound armament, and upgrading it to +12 was a risky venture. Considering the odds, Bai Yunfei decided it was better to reforge the soul armament and then upgrade it after.

Bai Yunfei didn’t know what the Heaven’s Bloodtears was capable of, but Heavenfire was fortunately knowledgeable about its properties. The two conferred quickly about what materials would be best for the task, and the Heaven’s Bloodtears was chosen to be used as the primary material to reforge the dagger demon armament to increase its power.

That being said, increasing the power of this dagger wasn’t the primary goal of Bai Yunfei. His goal first and foremost was to elevate his compatibility with it. With Heavenfire’s help, Bai Yunfei was confident his compatibility with the dagger would be quite high. He was ninety percent confident that his compatibility would be high enough to reach the soulbound armament level after upgrading it as well.

So he came to Heavenfire the moment the matter with Huangfu Rui was dealt with. The Core Stone was temporarily given to Tang Xinyun for safekeeping on the main peak so Huangfu Rui and the red magiboar could focus on their breakthrough. But since the elemental energy within the Core World wasn’t enough, the Core Stone had to supplement it by drawing in the energy from the real world. As a result, the skies above Mt. Crimson was a chaotic influx of fire.

Done with the prep work, Bai Yunfei gave a nod to Heavenfire and slammed a palm to his chest. In response, his fireseed popped out from him and flew into the Dualflame Cauldron.

“Bang!!” The cauldron roared to life at once with a heat hot enough to immediately raise the temperature of the room.

At the same time, Heavenfire burst apart into a wisp of fire to flow into the cauldron. It trembled once when Heavenfire entered it and began to expel flames twice as strong.

Exhaling softly, Bai Yunfei waved his hand. The dagger and the Heaven’s Bloodtears floated into the cauldron and was soon followed by the other materials...

......

The passage of time flowed as it always did. Slowly, but surely, twenty hours had passed before...

“Boom!!”

An ear-deafening explosion cracked apart the silence in the room as a pillar of flames jettisoned out from the cauldron. Slamming into the roof of the cave, the flames billowed out throughout the room, dying the air with a blood-red color. It seemed as though the flames themselves were dyed the color of blood as it danced, but it soon dissipated as the cauldron extinguished itself and sent its fireseed back into Bai Yunfei.

Fatigued, but otherwise excited, Bai Yunfei took the newly reforged dagger into his hand.

It was the same demon armament, but its outer shape had changed just a bit. Standing at two finger-widths wide and two-thirds of a meter tall, the demon armament was scarlet in color. Elemental fire rose from the blade, but there was also a paradoxically cold feeling stemming from it. But the most particular detail about the demon armament were the small blood-red markings on the surface of the blade. They looked like blood drops in a way not too different from the drops in the Heaven’s Bloodtears.

Elemental Affinity: Fire, Darkness

Attack: 8000

Soul Compatibility: 30%

Equipment Effect 1: Inflict Bleeding upon a successful strike. Wounds take longer to heal.

Equipment Effect 2: Transmit negative energy into the body upon a successful strike. Enemy will continue to be afflicted for an extended period of time. When exhausted, the negative energy must be reabsorbed.

Upgrade Requirement: 400 Soulpoints

Bai Yunfei grew happier when he saw the stats of the item.

Not only had the dagger grown in strength when he upgraded it, but it had also a huge leap in soul compatibility. A compatibility of 30% was nothing to scoff at.

Of the two equipment effects this demon armament had, it was the second that was causing the problems within Zi Jin. Bai Yunfei had been surprised when he first saw the effect, but then again, this was a demon armament, after all. Leaving behind a type of energy like that was typical. But the energy left behind by this demon armament was especially stronger than any other demon armament it seemed.

For clarification, even a regular fire-type soul armament would leave behind a scorch or burn mark when they struck someone. If the equipment effect explicitly stated that ‘burn’ damage would be taken, then that would indicate the severity of this ‘burn’ would be far stronger than the usual fire-type soul armament.

“Phew...”

A seemingly tired Heavenfire appeared beside Bai Yunfei. “How was it, was it successful?”

“Yes, we managed to get it to 30% compatibility. I should have no trouble making it a soulbound armament if I upgrade it to +11.” Bai Yunfei nodded, “I’ll get started on it right away.”

“Should you not rest? It is unwise to overexert yourself.

“It’s fine, I can continue.”

“Upgrade as you will, then.” Heavenfire didn’t push the issue and withdrew. He was worried for Zi Jin as well.

————————

Bai Yunfei focused on the shortsword on his left hand. The palm of his right hand was laid over its blade as he allowed for a particular energy to gather in it and enter into the sword.

Heavenfire watched as Bai Yunfei set about to upgrading the new demon armament. “The Planar Laws...but which one is it? This is truly a sight to see...”

Bai Yunfei was using the Manual Upgrade Technique so he could get the most compatibility. Not long after...

Elemental Affinity: Fire, Darkness

Attack: 8000

Soul Compatibility: 30%

Equipment Effect 1: Inflict Bleeding upon a successful strike. Wounds take longer to heal.

Equipment Effect 2: Transmit negative energy into the body upon a successful strike. Enemy will continue to be afflicted for an extended period of time. When exhausted, the negative energy must be reabsorbed.

+10 Additional Effect: 30% Chance to inflict Curse. 30% Decrease in all stats for up to 15 seconds.

Cooldown of 30 seconds.

Upgrade Requirement: 400 Soulpoints

Grabbing hold of the shortsword, Bai Yunfei smiled. “From today onward, you’ll be known as the Heaven’s Bloodtear Sword!

......

Bai Yunfei exitted from the cave to return to where Zi Jin was. Striding into the room, he saw Shen Pojun beside the unconscious elder, transferring soulforce into the man to aid him. But Zi Jin’s aura was already substantially weaker than before, and the negative energy was now leaking from his body in a more noticeable state.

Only Shen Pojun and Zi Jin were in the room, so Shen Pojun was quick to see Bai Yunfei’s arrival. “Yunfei!” He announced, “How did it go?”

The Heaven’s Bloodtear Sword appeared in Bai Yunfei’s left hand in response. “I’ve managed to turn it into my soulbound armament. There shouldn’t be any problems if I test it out now.”

“Very well!”

Shen Pojun stood up to let Bai Yunfei come close. His left hand detached from Zi Jin’s shoulder, causing the soulforce of the latter to start to tremble violently. Narrowing his eyes, Bai Yunfei latched onto Zi Jin’s right wrist with his hand at once.

“Bzz...”

The Heaven’s Bloodtear Sword in his left hand began to hum. Focused, Bai Yunfei waited as the negative energy within Zi Jin’s body suddenly flowed into Zi Jin’s right wrist and slowly began to be drained out into the sword.

Excited, Bai Yunfei kept watch as the negative energy continued to flow to the sword. The flow was very calm and obedient, and it seemed like it wouldn’t take much longer for the entirety of the energy to be drained away.

Finally, when the last of the negative energy was drained, Bai Yunfei could sense Zi Jin’s lifeforce reach a stasis. It was no longer in a state of constant decrease...

Relieved, Bai Yunfei suddenly felt everything go dark before he slumped to the ground. Though exhausted of energy, Bai Yunfei could feel a smile creep onto his face.

His master would finally be saved...