Chapter 1259: The Safe or Risky Decision: Reforging the Cataclysmic Seal
Heavenfire thought to himself in earnest. Disregarding the argument between the three Regalia, he finally replied:
“It is a hard decision. The easiest decision is to upgrade either the Soul Sealing Mandate or the Soul Sentinel Scarf. To be sure, the power of either Regalia will be substantially better than before. And upgrading either Regalia will absolutely lead to less regret and disappointment than any other decision…”
Bai Yunfei nodded to himself, he could agree with such a perspective so far. His initial choices were, in fact, these two Regalia, but he continued to listen to what Heavenfire had to say.
Heavenfire paused to take a breath, “However…the spirit of the Core Stone has a valid argument as well. Perhaps upgrading the Cataclysmic Seal would be a decent decision…”
“What?!”
The argument between the three Regalia ceased at once when Sealer let out a cry.
“But why! How did the Cataclysmic Seal end up in this?! He’s but a low-heaven tier! Upgrading that would only see to it reaching its limits, why squander such a valuable opportunity!?”
“Little Sealer,” Heavenfire glanced over to the Soul Sealing Mandate, “You have taken Bai Yunfei to be your master, you should consider everything he can achieve. Do you perhaps want for him to miss out on an opportunity to craft a Regalia himself?”
“What?!” Bai Yunfei’s eyes lit up with startled hope, “What did you say, Heavenfire? Me, craft a Regalia? Do you mean that…”
Heavenfire nodded. “I’ve said it before, Yunfei. Every soul armament has a ‘spirit’. But even the ‘spirit’ of a regular heaven-tier soul armament can be ignored on a regular basis. The ‘spirit’ of a Regalia is the only spirit with a substantial enough ‘life’ to it that we can truly call a ‘spirit of the armament’. It is because a Regalia has a spirit that it can be considered as such, otherwise even a soul armament with enough power or defense would be considered a Regalia.
“Whether sealed into a soul armament or born from nothing, having a spirit within the soul armament is what it means to be a Regalia. For example, the Soul Sealing Mandate is an example of the former and the Core Stone is an example of the latter. It is said that in the ancient past, the spirits of soulbeasts and even soul cultivators could be used to be implanted into soul armaments. But that method has been lost to history. However…”
Heavenfire’s eyes stared hotly into Bai Yunfei. “I have discovered an unprecedented method for a soul armament to give rise to having a spirit…”
Bai Yunfei’s heart skipped a beat, “Do you mean…by upgrading?”
“Exactly! It is by upgrading!” Heavenfire boomed in affirmative, “Your Upgrade Technique has the ability to waken a sleeping or injured spirit of the armament. Furthermore, it can also strengthen the ‘spirit’ of a regular soul armament. We can see this in the Cataclysmic Seal and Fire-tipped Spear. I suspect that if you upgrade it to a certain degree, both soul armaments will have their spirits ‘awaken’ to a new level of sentience and truly become spirits of the armament. In essence, this will turn the soul armament into a Regalia!!”
The more he listened, the more Bai Yunfei became excited, “Are you saying…that if I continue to upgrade the Cataclysmic Seal, the Fire-tipped Spear, and the Critical Glove…they can turn into Regalia?”
“It is but a guess, but I believe it possible!”
“Then…if I upgrade the Cataclysmic Seal to +14, it’s possible it might gain sentience?”
“I have no method of ascertaining that…” Heavenfire shook his head, “But I will say that upgrading it to +14 will most definitely strengthen its spirit. We have little information on what will happen when it becomes +14, thus, this decision is the hardest one to take. It is a risky choice in comparison to the safe choice of upgrading a Regalia. It is up to you to decide…”
“……”
Bai Yunfei grew silent. It was a plethora of new information he had just received. The nearby Regalias had tactfully remained silent so he could decide in peace. Their squabble on who should be upgraded between them didn’t seem as important now that they thought about what Heavenfire had said. As much as they wanted to be upgraded themselves, Heavenfire had a point. The creation of a new Regalia was also something to be excited over.
Bai Yunfei raised his head after a while. “Heavenfire, which soul armament do you think would have the greatest chance of gaining a spirit? If I upgrade them, what do you think the possibility would be?”
“If you’re so inclined to ‘gamble’ on the probabilities, then I would suggest the Cataclysmic Seal. But if you are to do that, then you will need to reforge the soul armament. I will assist you in that matter, but rather than attempt to make it stronger, your primary goal is to, of course, strengthen its spirit. If things go as planned, then it’ll become +14. If you don’t wish to do that, then…you may upgrade a Regalia instead.”
“What? Reforge the Cataclysmic Seal? Can it even go up in tier? Do you mean to do the same thing as when we tried repairing the Soul Sealing Mandate?”
“That is correct. My reason for choosing the Cataclysmic Seal over the Fire-tipped Spear and the Critical Glove is due to the Cataclysmic Seal’s ‘plasticity’. It holds the greatest success for being reforge and having its soul strengthened. In truth, your ‘upgrade’ is linked with ‘reforging’. Any soul armament upgraded by you has its ability to be reforge decreased. But with my assistance, the Cataclysmic Seal holds the greatest ability to be reforged.”
“I see…” Bai Yunfei nodded, he believed what Heavenfire was telling him. Putting the +14 Guaranteed Upgrade Stone and the other soul armaments away, Bai Yunfei stood up. “I’ll do as you say and reforge the Cataclysmic Seal then.”
“Yes, then. Do you have any supplemental materials on you? If not, then we can ask for some from the school.”
“Oh, this is the space ring the Wind Lightning School gave us as ‘compensation’. Can you take a look to see if there’s anything suitable inside?”
He tossed a space ring over to Heavenfire. Shen Pojun had given the ring to him before as well, deciding that Bai Yunfei would be the better person to look through it.
Taking the offered ring into his hands, Heavenfire began to inspect its contents, “What an amount!! It’s comparable to our own stores, almost! I can feel the sincerity in these gifts, my my….oh? This…this is a whitefire tempering stone! And…this is essence of red alum! And stgyian amber! Haha…this will do!”
Clearly, the items Heavenfire found inside the ring were of considerable worth if he was acting like this. “There’ll be no need to look for any other materials, all we need can be found in here. No better material can be found, in fact! Let us begin the reforging process!”
“Yes, let’s start right away!”
……
“Huff huff…”
The flames grew higher and higher as Heavenfire meticulously told Bai Yunfei what to do. Having experienced the process before with the Soul Sealing Mandate, Bai Yunfei found himself having an easier time than before as he threw precious material after material into the cauldron.
Then, the next object to be thrown into the cauldron was the Cataclysmic Seal. After that came a large pile of supplementary materials…
Time trickled by slowly after that. Bai Yunfei could sense every minute change going on within the Cataclysmic Seal, and it was with a bated breath that he worked the flames.
“Eh?”
The first anomaly happened when Bai Yunfei felt something strange in his mind. Something within the Cataclysmic Seal had suddenly started to pulsate. Sometimes, the pulse would be strong, and sometimes, it’d be weak. It was far from encouraging to sense the flow.
He thought back to the first time he forged the Cataclysmic Seal. He had been hotheaded back then, and his recklessness nearly caused himself to blow up, but somehow the Cataclysmic Seal had managed to take form after a myriad of freak factors. He still didn’t understand how he was able to do it, but he remembered that the ‘fusion’ of high-leveled materials and other soul armaments had formed together to take on the shape of the Cataclysmic Seal.
Right now, Bai Yunfei was getting a similar feeling of that moment right now.
But he wasn’t the same greenhorn crafter as he was before. Despite his misgivings, Bai Yunfei was more than ready to adapt to the changes accordingly and manipulate the flames of the cauldron to better temper the Cataclysmic Seal.
Soon, Bai Yunfei was able to quickly understand the changes in the Cataclysmic Seal. Whenever the pulse weakened, he’d work the flames to set the temperature soaring!
“Boom!!”
The flames in the Dualflame Cauldron swelled to life. Scorching the area around the cauldron, the flames would swell with such heat that even Bai Yunfei’s robes started to singe.
Gradually, the flames would die back down along with Bai Yunfei’s soulforce. It soon reached the point where the flames in the cauldron had ultimately died out, and the fireseed inside it returned to Bai Yunfei. Heavenfire shot out from the cauldron as well to reappear by Bai Yunfei’s side. Clearly, the Cataclysmic Seal was done being reforged.
The time was now. Gingerly, Bai Yunfei waved his right hand to bring a red beam of light out onto his palm.
He stared at it, eyes glued to the newly reforged Cataclysmic Seal to study the new changes of the soul armament…