The King Caging Bell was one of the Soul Refining School’s most precious treasures and was held by the first elder for safekeeping. Most of the students only knew of the soul armament by name since the majority of them had never seen it before.

This soul armament wasn’t an offensive type, and neither was it a defensive type. It was a more rare type of soul armament. A soul armament that could capture enemies.

It had an eponymous power. King Caging: This was a bell that could capture Soul Kings!

Legends had it that not even Peak Late-stage Soul Kings could escape from it!

All those students who were still alive felt nothing but the utmost glee at Bai Yunfei’s capture. It didn’t matter how ungodly they felt Bai Yunfei was. There was no escaping this!

......

“How should we deal with him, first elder?”

The wood-type Mid-stage Soul King who had nearly been killed by Bai Yunfei’s Heaven’s Thunder was especially happy to see Bai Yunfei captured. His eyes radiated his murderous glee as he asked the first elder that question.

In his mind, it was best that they simply just kill Bai Yunfei and be done with it. He also thought that using the King Caging Bell felt like a little too much to deal with just one person. The previous attack where everyone used a soul attack on Bai Yunfei had already been quite effective. He felt that Bai Yunfei would’ve died if they all attacked together.

Qin Bangjie had a grim look on his face. “This person has many secrets and precious items on him. We’ll wait for the King Caging Bell to sap him of his soulforce before we capture him. The headmaster will deal with him.”

“Let the headmaster deal with him?!” The wood-type Soul King cried out. He hadn’t thought that this person was special enough to warrant attention from even the headmaster himself.

There was nothing else that needed to be said. He stepped to the side and waited for things to take their course.

“Gong!!!”

A loud gong was heard from within the King Caging Bell as a wave of black and gold light flew out from it. Something was striking at it from the inside!

“Pah! A hopeless struggle!”

Mo Ni sneered. Bai Yunfei’s struggle felt great to him, Bai Yunfei surely had to be panicking like a headless chicken inside the King Caging Bell right now. Struggling like that was surely just a one-way ticket to losing even more soulforce.

The power of the King Caging Bell was something that made all attempts to escape it useless. It wasn’t just a tool to capture someone, it could also sap the person’s soulforce to the point of death!

What they had to do was wait for Bai Yunfei to be essentially devoid of soulforce before they captured him. It’d be simple then.

......

Mo Ni was half-right at the very least. Bai Yunfei was panicking inside the bell a bit, but...he wasn’t completely in despair just yet!

“What a powerful defense!”

He swung his left hand fruitlessly against his confines. Bai Yunfei had used the strongest punch he had to offer the moment he realized he was trapped, but that didn’t even cause a dent against this ‘wall’. All his punch did was cause the entire interior of the bell to echo something fierce.

But it was still completely intact!

The scary thing about this was the fact that Bai Yunfei coupled the +10 and +12 additional effects of the Critical Glove alongside with the Eighty-one Fold Fist Force. Not even a mid-heaven tier soul armament would be able to stop an attack that powerful. Bai Yunfei thought he would’ve caused the wall to crack, or at the very least leave behind a dent!

He stared at the ground. A layer of black and gold light covered the ground to replace the dirt he had been standing on before. Curious, Bai Yunfei grabbed hold of the Fire-tipped Spear and slammed it down onto the ground with vigorous force!

“Clang!!”

A metallic gong echoed within the bell alongside a shower of sparks, but the ground remained untouched!

“Not even the Fire-tipped Spear works!” Bai Yunfei was aghast.

“What’s this? My soulforce is being drained away!?” Suddenly, Bai Yunfei realized something was wrong with the bell. His soulforce was being taken away from his body! It was as if the bell itself was trying to wrestle his soulforce away!

“What do I do?!”

This was a worrying experience for Bai Yunfei. Narrowing his eyes, Bai Yunfei tried his best to think of something to get himself out from this mess.

His eyes flickered to the walls. The beginning of an idea was starting to take form. Taking two quick steps forward, Bai Yunfei pressed his right hand onto the wall.

A second later...

Equipment Grade: High Heaven

Elemental Affinity: Metal, Darkness

Defense: 7000

Equipment Effect: Drain 30 soulpoints of any trapped target per second.

Convert the attack power of any attack dealt inside into additional defense.

Only up to 100% of the equipment’s defense can be added.

Upgrade Requirement: 330 Soulpoints

Bai Yunfei’s eyebrows flew up onto his forehead in surprise at that.

“No wonder it’s that powerful! If it can absorb and convert the attacks of anything, then there’s no point attacking the bell unless I can destroy it in one blow!

“But even more importantly...30 soulpoints every second!” His face fell at the rate of soulforce lost per second. “Damn! Then...I can’t hesitate any longer then! I have to do this!”

30 Soulpoints per second meant 1800 in a minute and 18000 in ten!

If he counted all his equips and if he was in the ‘Coil’ Form, then Bai Yunfei had roughly 40000 soulpoints. He had already used 10000 of that after all the battling recently, so that left him with a little less than 30000 soulpoints. He’d be down to less than half of that if he didn’t get out of here in ten minutes. And even if he did, he’d be easy pickings once he escaped!

There wasn’t enough room to do any powerful elemental attacks, and neither was there any way for him to make a hole in the ‘ground’. The defensive might of the soul armament was just far too strong. Using the +13 additional effect of the Fire-tipped Spear might possibly do something to the bell, but that’d require using up half his soulforce—which seemed foolhardy in this scenario...

Bai Yunfei had to be ‘economical’ with his soulforce. He had to find the best way to preserve himself.

His right hand pressed against the wall. Eyes brimming with determination, he thought to himself. “Upgrade!”

Upgrade Successful

Equipment Grade: High Heaven

Elemental Affinity: Metal, Darkness

Upgrade Level: +1

“......”

A sliver of soulforce traveled down his arm into the soul armament. Bai Yunfei waited for the success notification to pop up in his head and the soul armament to light up before he tried again.

“Upgrade!”

There was no hesitation in trying to upgrade again!

Upgrade Successful

“Upgrade!”

Upgrade Successful

“Upgrade!

“Upgrade!

“Upgrade!!”

“......”

More and more soulforce drained away from Bai Yunfei as he upgraded the King Caging Bell. Ten seconds had passed and three thousand soulpoints had been taken away from Bai Yunfei!

The black and gold bell was glowing brighter and brighter now. The elemental energy pulsating from it was even stronger than before!

Then at last...

Upgrade Successful

Equipment Grade: High Heaven

Elemental Affinity: Metal, Darkness

Upgrade Level: +10

Defense: 7000

Additional Defense: 3500

Soul Compatibility: 20%

Equipment Effect: Drain 30 soulpoints of any trapped target per second.

Convert the attack power of any attack dealt inside into additional defense.

Only up to 100% of the equipment’s defense can be added.

+10 Additional Effect: Recover 30 soulpoints per second if used upon oneself.

Cooldown of 24 hours.

Upgrade Requirement: 330 Soulpoints

Bai Yunfei quirked an eyebrow at the additional effect. This was a powerful effect, but there wasn’t any time to spare to remark on it.

“Upgrade!”