“……”

A pang of annoyance crossed Bai Yunfei’s face at the success notification.

He wanted to comment on this, but the thought was dismissed just as quickly as it came.

“Upgrade!”

Another sliver of soulforce was lost. And when he saw the notification, his lips frowned even more noticeably than before!

“……

“……”

This time, Bai Yunfei was deathly quiet for two full seconds.

“Go f*ck yourself, what kind of sh*t is this?!”

How could something he’d normally want to happen in any other situation like this happen now of all times?! It was ludicrous! If the Heavens were playing a joke on him, Bai Yunfei had to admit it was a cruel one… 

“I just wanted to fail an upgrade—why?! Why can’t I have this kind of luck when I’m normally upgrading!?” Bai Yunfei cursed to himself.

The plan was simple. Use the Upgrade Technique to upgrade the King Caging Bell until failure so it could be destroyed. This was the least wasteful method Bai Yunfei had to offer and had also the benefit of destroying the enemy’s soul armament.

But…the Heavens were surely laughing at Bai Yunfei. It was one thing to not see a single failure until the +10 point, but it was another thing entirely to have it succeed in becoming a +11. In normal times Bai Yunfei wouldn’t even have a good chance of getting such a result even with an upgrade stone. And if +11 was a rarity, getting it to +12 should’ve been close to being an impossibility… 

Why was his ‘luck’ today so good?!

And if his luck was so good, then why was it that he was stuck in the middle of G.o.d-knows-where with so much danger around him?!

He might’ve been imagining it, but Bai Yunfei felt like the Luck Pendant on his chest was a bit warmer than usual as if to say, ‘So? How about it? Aren’t I great if I can get a high-heaven tier soul armament to +12?’

Honestly, Bai Yunfei wanted to cry. 

He would’ve been glad to see this at any other time but now. If only…if only this +12 soul armament didn’t belong to the enemy!

“Eh? Wait a second!!”

A sudden thought popped into Bai Yunfei’s head before he could upgrade the soul armament again. There was something about this situation he could make use of!

“A soul compatibility of 50%?!” Bai Yunfei’s heart skipped a beat at the reading of the soul compatibility.

In his experience, the increase in soul compatibility would normally be higher if he manually upgraded it rather than using the Upgrade Technique. Generally speaking, the soul compatibility of a soul armament would fall around 40% with the Upgrade Technique, but this one was 50%. Even considering the circ.u.mstances, this was a deviation too large to be said to be just a coincidence. 

But a value of 50% meant this soul armament was at the boundary of being a ‘soulbound’ armament!

Was that also a result of his luck being too good?

Bai Yunfei’s eyes lingered on the line regarding soul compatibility. A very interesting thought was starting to formulate in his mind!

“50%...that’s definitely the point when a soul armament becomes soulbound. If that’s the case…I have to try it!!”

His right hand pressed against the soul armament again. He wasn’t going to upgrade the soul armament this time, but to spread his own soulsense into the soul armament!

“Bzz….”

The entire King Caging Bell began to hum violently the moment his soulsense was disseminated into it. It lit up with a resplendent light to cover the entire interior with its black and gold light so that Bai Yunfei couldn’t even see a thing. He had to close his eyes in order to avoid being blinded.

But his mind was elsewhere. He was concentrating solely on the Soul Sentinel Scarf on his forehead as if searching for something… 

He was…searching for the soul print Qin Bangjie had on the King Caging Bell! He…he was trying to ‘wrestle control’ over the King Caging Bell!

A powerful soul armament like this surely had to be the soulbound armament of Qing Bangjie. It would’ve been impossible to steal the soul armament away from him in that case until certain conditions were met. 

As it so happened, those certain conditions were being met right now. Now that the King Caging Bell was +12, Bai Yunfei had reached a soul compatibility of 50% with it. That meant Bai Yunfei could at the very least try stealing it!

Of course, Bai Yunfei knew there was a good chance the enemy had over 50% soul compatibility with the King Caging Bell. He wouldn’t be able to compete in terms of higher compatibility in that case, but he had something else up his sleeve…he was far more familiar with how soul compatibility worked with soul armaments!

A Soul King could make use of their power to forcibly leave behind an imprint of their soul onto a soul armament to have it called a soulbound armament. Soulbound armaments made that way were of an inferior scale than the soulbound armaments owned by a student of the Crafting School. The methodology used by the Crafting School left behind a far stronger imprint on the soul armament in comparison to anyone else.

For example, if the soulbound armament of an outsider and the soulbound armament of a crafter were to be compared, then the power exhibited from the latter would definitely outstrip the power of the former.

It was all because of the methodology and understanding crafters had of soul armaments. Their knowledge was something the rest of the world would never be able to compare to.

Because of the King Caging Bell reaching a 50% soul compatibility with Bai Yunfei it didn’t put up a resistance to Bai Yunfei when he sent his soulsense into it. Conversely, because Qin Bangjie was controlling the King Caging Bell, Bai Yunfei was unable to continue with the process completely unimpeded.

The first thing Bai Yunfei had to do was locate the soul imprint left on the King Caging Bell. If he could either erase or destroy the imprint, Bai Yunfei could make a new connection with the King Caging Bell!

And then…the King Caging Bell would become Bai Yunfei’s soulbound armament!

The process wasn’t without its dangers. A failure to convert the soul armament to his side would mean losing precious time and by extension his soulforce. Then there was the chance that there’d be a rebound onto his soul if he failed to make a connection and hurt him again.

But it was a high-risk, high-return method. He had to chance it!

He already rationalized it out. If by chance he failed, he’d simply just upgrade the soul armament again. And if that succeeded and the King Caging Bell became +13, then Bai Yunfei would try upgrade it again to destroy it. Then he’d use Berserk Mode and break free if all else failed.

A quick second pa.s.sed for Bai Yunfei to be convinced of his plan. Closing his eyes, Bai Yunfei concentrated even harder on his task!

Then…

“Found it!!”