“Yunfei, let us return to the Core World. Now that this is over, we may leave this place.”

Shen Pojun didn’t have the drive to cause any more trouble for the Wind Lightning School. He turned his attention to Bai Yunfei and waited for a response. He was slightly surprised to see Bai Yunfei staring excitedly at himself—no, at the space ring in his hand.

“Eh? Ah...yes, ancestor.”

Bai Yunfei bowed his head at once, embarrassed. All at once, everyone around Bai Yunfei disappeared to return back into the Core World.

He turned his attention one last time to the remaining few members of the Wind Lightning School. Sighing to himself, Bai Yunfei turned and left the area.

Things didn’t devolve into a huge battle has he thought. Though there had been a slight hiccup and commotion, the goal of the Crafting School had more-or-less been attained. What grievances the two school had against one another was dealt with, and neither school would seek out the other in the future. There was no need to kill anyone.

It felt rather regretful that Dong Wanfeng died in the end, but there were a few other things that caused no small amount of excitement for Bai Yunfei. He actually felt more excitement than he did joy from the victory.

He was actually thinking about the last few things Dong Wanfeng had said to Shen Pojun before he died...

“Our school is ready to offer our treasures to yours, including precious materials comparable to the Nephrite Throne and the other fist-sized jade stones. Given your school’s abilities, it may be possible to craft something on par with the Nephrite Throne...”

Materials equivalent to the Nephrite Throne!!

To Bai Yunfei, materials equivalent to the Nephrite Throne meant Guaranteed Upgrade Stones!! Fist-sized stone jades...it was possible they could be +14 Guaranteed Upgrade Stones!

If Dong Wanfeng wasn’t lying, then it was possible that space ring contained +14 Guaranteed Upgrade Stones. How could Bai Yunfei not feel excited at that? It took all Bai Yunfei had to prevent himself from looking at the space ring at once. He just had to wait for the group to leave the place so Bai Yunfei could take a good look at the spoils for himself.

And so it was with great excitement that Bai Yunfei left the place. In half a day’s worth of time, Bai Yunfei had already traveled all the way back to Freesia City in the Yellow River Province where Ye Zhiqiu’s house was.

............

......

Inside the Core World. Deep within the stomach of Mt. Crimson, in the area where Heavenfire ‘resided’.

Bai Yunfei sat cross-legged on the ground of the cave, surrounded by a variety of his soul armaments such as the Fire-tipped Spear, the Cataclysmic Seal, the Soul Sealing Mandate, the Critical Glove, and even the Soul Sentinel Scarf.

His attention wasn’t on any of these soul armaments, but on the white crystal he held in his right hand.

The crystal sparkled from the light in his hand. It was a sizeable chunk that was shaped almost like a cube.

It was with excitement that Bai Yunfei waited for a certain notification to appear in his mind.

Equipment Grade: High Heaven

Elemental Affinity: None

Equipment Effect 1: Allow the successful upgrade of any item +14 and below.

Equipment Effect 2: Increase the tier of an equipment when crafting by one (High Heaven tier being the highest)

Cannot be upgraded.

—This was the stone Dong Wanfeng promised. It was indeed a +14 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone!!

Bai Yunfei found it hard to wipe the smile on his face no matter how many times he looked over the stone. Like a miser looking fondly on his money collection, Bai Yunfei was ecstatic to see the stone in his hand.

All was calm now that the matter with the Wind Lightning School was over. Back in Freesia City, many of the Crafting School members, such as Tang Xinyun, Huangfu Rui, Fei Nian, Mo Xiaoxuan, and Ye Zhiqiu decided to head into the city to take a break. It was a nice time to do so, and none of the elders saw it necessary to stop them.

But Bai Yunfei didn’t go with them. He returned to the interior of the school to find Shen Pojun instead.

That was roughly the time when Shen Pojun took out the stones to research. When he saw how Bai Yunfei had expressed interest in it, he handed the stone over without even a question.

He had nearly let out a cry of happiness when he grabbed hold of the stone and confirmed its properties. He managed to hide his excitement just long enough to say goodbye to Shen Pojun and leaving the place.

Though he wasn’t asked what he was doing, Bai Yunfei couldn’t simply tell the man nothing either. Giving a small report, Bai Yunfei then requested for a room to craft a soul armament.

The properties of the stone was indeed identical to what the Nephrite Throne was made of, but Shen Pojun had told Bai Yunfei that it’d be impossible to recreate the throne. The methodology of such a soul armament was lost to the world, and no one knew how to craft anything similar. The stone was therein only good as a crafting stone.

If enough Guaranteed Upgrade Stones were gathered, it’d be possible to use them as a way to hasten one’s training, but it would never be enough to be turned into an equipment effect. Aside from being created from Guaranteed Upgrade Stones, the Nephrite Throne possessed the miraculous ability of doubling the training and healing rate of a person. This wasn’t the innate property of an upgrade stone, meaning there was a particular technique to be done in the crafting process to add that on.

Not even the Core Stone or the Soul Sealing Mandate knew how Wu Tianhun had managed to craft the Nephrite Throne. No one alive knew the secret, thus it’d be impossible to craft a soul armament like that from the +14 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone.

Had he any idea of how to recreate the Nephrite Throne, Bai Yunfei would’ve found it impossibly hard to decide what to do with the Guaranteed Upgrade Stone. But now that he knew it was impossible, he could heave a sigh of relief and commit to the decision of using it to upgrade an item instead.

Still, he found himself at a rather difficult crossroad: which soul armament should he upgrade? He only had one chance, and he dared not be sloppy with his decision.

For the sake of making a decision, Bai Yunfei came to Heavenfire for guidance.

......

“Hey, Bai Yunfei. You’ve been idling about for half the day already, say what it is you want to do already!”

The annoyed voice of Heavenfire snapped Bai Yunfei out from his thoughts. Looking up, Bai Yunfei saw Heavenfire standing in front of him, a strange expression on his face.

‘Ah...sorry, I was lost in my own thoughts.” Bai Yunfei smiled, embarrassed. He patted the stone he held in his hand, “Heavenfire, this is a +14 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone.”

“Eh?” Heavenfire’s eyes narrowed upon hearing the term, “Say that again? This...is a +14 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone?!”

He was already aware of Bai Yunfei’s Upgrade Technique and the intricacies behind it. He also knew what it meant to have a +14 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone.

“So you’ve finally managed to find one! Where from? Will you finally be able to have a +14 soul armament? Have you decided which soul armament?” Heavenfire began to question.

“We obtained it from the Wind Lightning School.” Bai Yunfei replied, “As for which soul armament I wanted to upgrade, that’s why I’m here. I wanted to ask for your opinion.”

“Why now, what do you need to think about then? Of course you should upgrade your strongest soul armament! Yunfei, upgrade the Soul Sealing Mandate!!”

Another voice beat Heavenfire to a response. There was a flash of light from the Soul Sealing Mandate as a white tiger materialized. Staring wide-eyed at Bai Yunfei, the tiger seemed to bat its eyes coyishly at him.

“If it’s upgrading to +14, then the Soul Sentinel Scarf would do as well...”

In rapid succession to the Soul Sealing Mandate, there was a flash of white light from the Soul Sentinel Scarf. A small ball of light floated out from the bandana—this was the materialization of the Soul Sentinel Scarf’s finally awakened spirit. He had yet to ‘settle’ on a shape to define his spirit and took on the form of a ball of light instead.

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The spirit of the Soul Sealing Mandate seemed displeased. “Hey, Sealer, you can’t even remember everything from the past. Let’s not fight with me, yeah?”

“It’s because I’m not back to normal that I wish to be upgraded. Perhaps I’ll be able to recall everything once I become +14...my strength will surely increase.”

“But I want to become stronger too! No way, Yunfei, you have to upgrade the Soul Sealing Mandate!”

“Yunfei, please upgrade the Soul Sentinel Scarf.”

Suddenly, a tertiary flash of light appeared from another one of Bai Yunfei’s soul armaments.

“Why now, would it kill for the two of you to have the dignity of a Regalia?” It was the Core Stone.

“Why must you two fight like children over candy? Isn’t it shameful? To have the spirit of a kid instead of a Regalia?”

“Oh +12 Core Stone, don’t you start. You’ve not the right to be +14.” Replied Sealer.

“You—is that how it’s going to be, Sealer? Had I known earlier, I wouldn’t have let you become +13!”

“Oh, is that the story? You allowed me? I clearly remember being the one to lay claim to it, however?”

“You—!”

“Yunfei, please upgrade the Soul Sentinel Scarf.”

“No! Upgrade the Soul Sealing Mandate!”

“Don’t listen to them, Yunfei! Upgrade your other soul armaments, I believe the Cataclysmic Seal isn’t a bad choice...”

“......”

Bai Yunfei felt like his mind was about to explode listening to three of the Regalias quibble like they were.

He turned his attention back to Heavenfire.

“What do you think?”