The spatial tear devoured a good portion of the upper half of Gu Jimie’s body. It left behind such a grisly sight that ‘Zhao Chang’ hurriedly moved out of the way so he could watch two incoming beams of light come closer.

“Whoosh!!”

The beams of light came to a stop near where Gu Jimie’s corpse laid, revealing the figures of Bai Yunfei and Xiao Qi.

Summoning the space rings from Gu Jimie’s hand to him, Bai Yunfei caught them before letting Xiao Qi clean up Gu Jimie’s body parts with another two spatial tears.

Bai Yunfei learned his lesson with Gu Lianhun and that matter with his corpse exploding. He didn’t think Gu Jimie would do the same thing, but better to be safe than sorry.

He looked up to face Zhao Chang.

“Are you…Mingfeng?!”

Came a puzzled question.

“Haha, yeah! It’s me! I have to say, Ol’Bai…you really did manage to kill Gu Jimie eh? I thought it’d be senior Shen or Frostfeather that’d do it, words can’t even describe you anymore!”

‘Zhao Chang’ roared with laughter. His aura flickered and began to change in frequency as his physical appearance also began to change. Soon, a completely different person stood right there. And who else could it be but Jing Mingfeng?

Prior to him coming here, Jing Mingfeng had come across and killed Zhao Chang. After killing the man, Jing Mingfeng figured it’d be better for him to adopt the man’s identity with his techniques. If he came across an enemy after that, it’d be an easy matter to pretend to be Zhao Chang and be safe.

It was lucky he did such a thing or killing Gu Jimie would’ve been a much harder task.

He guessed it earlier, but there was still a part of Bai Yunfei that was astounded with Jing Mingfeng’s ability to shapeshift. “This Soul Imitation of yours is the real wonder here…I never would’ve guessed it was you if you didn’t attack Gu Jimie…”

“Hehe, it’s rare getting praise from you! Don’t underestimate my techniques! And don’t think I’ll let you learn this technique, I’d rather die!”

“Yeah? And if I give you a Regalia in return?”

“Never! I would ne—” Jing Mingfeng paused, “say, do you have any Regalias you don’t need?”

“Any?” Bai Yunfei laughed, “Do you think Regalias are like crops you can pick at will?”

His laughter died away when a stab of pain shot through him. “Mingfeng, I’m going to head into the Core World to heal! I’ll leave the Core Stone with you, you go that way; there’s a giant stone door there. Wait there for everyone to get there and hide if an enemy gets there first!”

He was gone even before Jing Mingfeng could even nod. Xiao Qi disappeared along with him and left behind the Core Stone to float slowly into Jing Mingfeng’s hand.

“Looks like fighting Gu Jimie was a bit too much,” He sighed as he took the item into his hand. “I hope he’ll be alright…”

Giving one last look around the area, Jing Mingfeng then took flight into the direction Bai Yunfei pointed…

……

Inside the Core World.

Bai Yunfei was currently flying through the skies to the closest mountain.

Throughout the flight, Xiao Qi remained quiet in favor to stare in concern at his companion. Once they reached the top of the mountain, he split away from him so he could concentrate on his own—killing Gu Jimie had been a wonderful amount of ‘experience’.

A warning was sent to a few others in the Core World about Bai Yunfei’s current status and how he needed time by himself to recuperate. So instead of bothering him, those who were nearby elected to stand far away and wait.

The very first thing Bai Yunfei did when he landed on top of the mountain was to undo everything. The Vampiric Demon Edge was put away and its effects canceled. Next to come undone was Soul Ignition and then Berserk Mode. Then…the King Caging Bell appeared out of thin air to trapped him underneath.

Bai Yunfei wasn’t a stranger to discomfort or pain but the sheer amount of it was far too much for him to handle. Even muffled, his screams could be heard from afar and left many people very worried…

Two hours later.

The King Caging Bell disappeared from sight to reveal Bai Yunfei.

“Phew…to think we were actually able to defeat a Saint…”

Replenished in soulforce and vitality, Bai Yunfei began to reflect upon his previous with glee.

Things felt hopeless at the time. His chances of winning were slim and Bai Yunfei didn’t feel like he had any tricks to help him. All things considered, Bai Yunfei thought it’d be impossible to defeat a genuine Saint in combat.

A Saint! These types of individuals could be easily counted on the continent!

“Beating Gu Jimie was a fluke…I won’t be as lucky next time…In the end, I’m still not strong enough. Otherwise I wouldn’t have suffered so much!”

He clenched his fist in determination, “I definitely have to get stronger!!”

……

The very first thing Bai Yunfei did, instead of speaking with Chu Yintian and the others or heading out to meet with Jing Mingfeng, was to begin foraging through Gu Lianhun’s space rings.

Now was a time for resting. He hadn’t anything to do outside the Core World but wait. So he plopped down and began to look for anything that might be useful.

Gu Lianhun spent nearly as much time in this place as the Saint of Fate. His research into the stone door surely must’ve resulted in something worthwhile.

Bai Yunfei didn’t find much in the rings. All the primal stones, herbs, and other items beneficial to training were missing. It wasn’t strange to think that they’d be used up if Gu Lianhun spent over two hundred years trapped here.

There were, however, quite a few soul armaments. But that wasn’t what Bai Yunfei was looking for. He swept past them for only a brief moment to take any worthwhile ones into his own space ring.

One of the more interesting finds was a single memory slip. On it held some observations on the Laws in place in this dimension and were far more detailed than what the Saint of Fate left behind. Bai Yunfei was almost suspicious about the records but decided to look at it later if it’d be able to help them.

“Eh?”

A while later and Bai Yunfei came across something that was particularly strange.

It was a white square-shaped cloth that seemed strangely familiar to him. A few words were inscribed on its surface, and the longer Bai Yunfei looked at it, the more shocked he became…

Written on the bottom right corner:

“This one discovered the Supreme Saint’s Inheritance deep within the bowels of Hidden Dragon Valley and found the previous Supreme Saint’s trials far too challenging. Thus, I bestow upon the secret of opening the final gate to fate.”

They were but a few words, but they were more than enough to leave Bai Yunfei stunned!

So that’s how Gu Lianhun learned about the Supreme Saint’s Inheritance being here! This piece of cloth held the key to opening the stone door! And to think that someone would have this cloth…this meant that not only did someone come here and open the gates…but they also didn’t take the Supreme Saint’s Inheritance!!

Truly, what an inconceivable thought…

“I…I…”

A random thought entered his mind then. If Gu Lianhun had a way to open the gate, then why didn’t he do so?

Quickly, Bai Yunfei’s eyes landed on the area where the ‘method’ was written, only to be surprised that it wasn’t written down in the form of words, but…

It was a diagram! A design of some kind that seemed almost nonsensical with how messy and random the lines were.

And to make matters worse, this ‘diagram’ wasn’t even complete. The left and upper parts of the cloth were clearly missing.

Another strange thought entered Bai Yunfei’s mind. Still confused, he slowly tilted the cloth this way and that as if trying to confirm something.

Almost impatiently, he dug into the Violet Soul Ring and began to look for something in particular.

The three pieces of cloth!!

Quickly, he took them out and began to arrange them in a way that made sense!

And there it was! The ‘design’ was now complete!

“It’s…it’s real!!”

He let out a gasp to himself, as if piecing the pieces of the puzzle together. The truth was right in front of him, and he couldn’t be happier seeing it!

“It really is!! Haha!! So this is the ‘key’ to opening that door!! We went all this way here and the answer was literally with us all this time! Hahaha!!”

Bai Yunfei could hardly help himself when he threw his head back to laugh.

For all this time, he had practically forgotten about these three pieces of cloth! He never knew that these of all things would actually have a use like this!

The first piece was found by accident when Bai Yunfei was in the Soulbeast Forest. The second was gained in the capital. And the third was one he got from a wanderer known as Huang Shan.

And now the fourth and final piece came from Gu Lianhun. Together, they formed the way to unlock the stone door!

Was…was this the supposed ‘light’ at their dark hour?

Trying his best to restrain his emotions, Bai Yunfei began to study the design for the answer.

Simply speaking, the ‘mysterious markings’ on each of the four pieces of cloth formed together to make one big ‘mysterious marking’. It had multiple intersecting lines and other lines that went everywhere and nowhere.

But now that he had the big picture…wasn’t this diagram pointing out the ‘veins’ on the door!?

But the veins on that door was definitely many times more complicated looking than this design…

“Or maybe…the veins on that door require the right one to work? All of them are distractions except for this one!?”

Bai Yunfei came to the conclusion fairly quick. The veins were like a password, one had to choose the right one in order to open the door.

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The Supreme Saint was a man who could create such a trial…how amazing.

He was stunned. The man who left behind this piece of cloth…didn’t that mean he learned how to unlock the door with this ‘password’?! How amazing was that!?

“I might as well try and see if it works!!”

Bai Yunfei suddenly felt excited to see if he could try and use this ‘password’. Quickly committing the diagram to memory, Bai Yunfei put the pieces away and faded away from the Core World…