The Cataclysmic Seal and the Soul Destroying Needle were collected before Bai Yunfei flew to where the Late-stage Soul Emperor was. Once he arrived there, he waved his hand and sent the captured man into the Core World.

He didn’t want to kill him just yet. He wanted to see if there was any information that could be taken from him later. For example, how the group managed to track him all the way here.

Unfortunately, Bai Yunfei hadn’t the power to force such information out from the Late-stage Soul Emperor. He’d need to have either Shen Pojun or the Frostfeather Saint to soulscan him.

Regardless, Bai Yunfei turned his attention elsewhere. He sent a quick message to Chu Yintian and the others to subdue the Late-stage Soul Emperor so the Soul Sealing Mandate could be ‘freed’ up.

The real fight had yet to begin and Bai Yunfei didn’t want to have a Regalia like the Soul Sealing Mandate be wasted on ‘small fry’.

……

From start to end, the battle between Bai Yunfei and the two Soul Emperors took only half a minute. The world was already back to normal as if nothing ever happened…

After confirming that nothing was out of the ordinary, Bai Yunfei relaxed just a bit and flew to the front of the stone gates to observe it.

The gates were pitch-dark all over, but nothing about the construct of the gates seemed special. It was about a hundred meters wide, four hundred meters tall, and about ten meters thick. It had no door frame and didn’t have two panels to swing open or close with. Instead, it was simply just a ‘stone slab’.

It was a ‘door’, in a sense, but Bai Yunfei didn’t even know if it swung open to the left, to the right, or upward…

The Saint of Fate speculated before that this door surely had to be the entrance to where the Supreme Saint’s Inheritance was. As long as the barrier could be opened, then the Supreme Saint’s Inheritance would be obtainable and everyone would be able to leave this sealed space.

The Saint of Fate was never able to succeed at that, however. Even after a hundred years to his death, he never managed to open it. And neither did Gu Lianhun.

When Bai Yunfei looked to the gates, he could hardly help himself from feeling excited. The notion of potentially being able to obtain the Supreme Saint’s Inheritance was far too much for him. Already he was planning to see how he could possibly open the door.

That didn’t mean he thought he was special enough to open it. If the Saint of Fate and Gu Lianhun weren’t able to, he certainly didn’t have high hopes about his chances. He just needed to wait until Shen Pojun and the others to arrive here so they could begin experimenting.

According to the Saint of Fate, the door was abnormally durable. Not even a heaven-tier soul armament was capable of inflicting damage onto the doors. And if by chance the doors sustained an attack stronger than whatever limit they had, then the doors would meld with the dimension and temporarily become invisible. Forcing the doors open was simply not an option.

The Saint of Fate also noted that all sorts of ‘veins’ were connected to the doors. One could transmit their soulforce into these veins, in other words. He theorized that the way to opening the door had to do with those veins.

And that was the most important piece of information the Saint of Fate had in regards to this final obstacle.

Moving closer to the door, Bai Yunfei studied the little ‘scratches’ that adorned its surface. They weren’t anything like runic writings or characters but instead looked like a bizarre jumble of scratches without rhyme or reason to them.

……

After a while of studying the door, Bai Yunfei found himself wondering what would happen if he touched the door. He was curious what would happen if he tried to transmit his soulforce into these ‘veins’ as the Saint of Fate said. As he readied his mind and placed his hand on the door…

Equipment Grade: High Heaven

Elemental Affinity: Earth

Defense: 9000

Equipment Effect: Fade into the void when taking more damage than this equipment’s defense.

Upgrade Requirement: 480 Soulpoints

Bai Yunfei’s head snapped up, alarmed by what he saw.

This door…was a high-heaven tier soul armament! And its defenses were over nine thousand!

That meant the door disappearing upon taking a powerful attack wasn’t a result of the dimension or any barrier. It was because of the door’s own ability.

Understanding dawned on his face. “Ah! If this door is a powerful soul armament, then wouldn’t I be able to force a path open if I upgrade it until it’s destroyed?!

“No wait…that’s too dangerous. What if something happens if I try that? That should be a last last resort, if at all…” Bai Yunfei immediately rejected his earlier thought.

“While I can’t upgrade it too much, I should still be able to upgrade it just a bit and increase the soul compatibility. Maybe something good will happen…”

“Okay…” He steadied himself, ready to begin the upgrading at once.

“Upgrade!”

……

A while later.

Equipment Grade: High Heaven

Elemental Affinity: Earth

Upgrade Level: +10

Defense: 9000

Additional Defense: 4500

Soul Compatibility: 15%

Equipment Effect: Fade into the void when taking more damage than this equipment’s defense.

Additional Effect: 2000 Increase in defense.

Upgrade Requirement: 480 Soulpoints

Bai Yunfei stopped upgrading the door when it reached the +10 mark. For some reason, the door was even harder to upgrade than a regular high-heaven tier soul armament!

From the fifth upgrade to the tenth, Bai Yunfei found himself failing at least once each time. It was only due to his timely intervention that he managed to alter the outcome and get it to +10.

Given Bai Yunfei’s current understanding of the Upgrade Technique, upgrading any soul armament to +10 should’ve been a cinch. But changing the outcome into a success to +10 had been nearly as hard as upgrading the Flame Dragon Crescent Blade to +12!

That was the main reason why Bai Yunfei stopped. He’d be horrified if he failed to upgrade it to +11—was it because of the size that altering the outcome was harder?

He never upgraded a soul armament the size and shape like this before. It was without a doubt a new precedent.

And the soul compatibility was only 15% even at +10. It left Bai Yunfei disappointed at such a low value. That meant he and the door were hardly ‘compatible’.

“Perhaps…I should use the Guaranteed Upgrade Stone once or twice?”

Bai Yunfei felt unwilling to abandon the upgrading. He still had three +11 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone and a single +12 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone, the ones he got from Tang Wei as a wedding gift.

“Or maybe not…upgrading it to +12 won’t even get me 40% compatibility. I might as well keep them if it’s not going to be useful. I can’t even bring this door with me, let alone use it as a soulbound armament.”

It didn’t make much sense for him to use the Guaranteed Upgrade Stone, so Bai Yunfei ultimately decided against the thought. As insightful as he was with upgrading, high-heaven soul armaments were about his limits. If he were to ever get another Regalia, then these Guaranteed Upgrade Stone would become essential.

“Ugh…let’s calm down, we should be able to think of something once ancestor Shen gets here…”

Exhaling to relieve some of his annoyances, Bai Yunfei stood up. Ignoring the matter of upgrading, he studied the door once more to see if he could begin to see anything regarding the veins.

He prodded at the door with his soulsense, sensing the countless veins that ran throughout the door and noting how they matched the visible scratches on the surface.

With the entirety of the doors clear for Bai Yunfei to see, Bai Yunfei tried once again to see if there was a ‘pattern’.

But he saw none.

However, he had a strange feeling about something. There was no ‘pattern’ to these scratches or veins, but…it was ‘familiar’ to him…

……

“Eh?!”

Bai Yunfei’s eyebrows rose up on his head, all of a sudden. He was shocked, but not because of the mystery of the door. Something was resonating from his soul—his bond with Xiao Qi!

“This is…”

Pleased, Bai Yunfei dashed from one side of the door to one of its corners. In a flash, he disappeared from the sealed dimension to enter the Core World.

In his place, the Core Stone was suspended right beside the door, ‘hidden’ from multiple angles…