Eternal Thief

"Accepting a Life Sword is a ritual in which you need to manifest your sword heart by calling your sword intent. Then, any spirit sword that is bound to you with a life bond will be entered into it! You'll be able to feel it," Avos replied solemnly.

Ace nodded before he tried to manifest his sword intent. An extremely sharp aura suddenly gushed out of his body, and unlike before, a vague white phantom of a sword appeared behind him.

Ace felt completely different now that his sword law had become 100%, and he comprehended the sword heart. He felt like he was now the sword itself and could cut anything in his vision with just sword Qi.

Furthermore, he hadn't noticed it before, but now that he knew about the life sword ritual, he felt his sword heart was empty and lacking in something.

"You have felt it. Let me out!" Avos's agitated voice rang.

But right at this moment, before Ace could react, something stirred in his marital and soul spaces, making Ace tremble. He was bewildered because he knew exactly what it was. The very next moment, two pitch-black streaks shot out from his solar plexus and glabella, bringing about the aura of heaven and darkness.

Those two dark streaks directly penetrated the vague sword phantom behind him, and the heavenly Qi in the atmosphere suddenly churned before an invisible suction forced the golden heavenly Qi towards the sword phantom!

Like a bottomless hole, the sword phantom began to absorb all the heavenly Qi, its vague image began to solidify, and its color began to turn glittering golden-black!

"T-this…" Avos were dumbfounded, the same as Ace.

"They are martial and Soul Thief Sword Cores!" Ace exclaimed, completely flabbergasted. He didn't expect this turn of events at all.

The swords didn't react when he comprehended the sword heart, but the moment he showed the intention of accepting Avos as his heart sword by manifesting his sword intent, both sword cores reacted on their own!

'No, they are not just sword cores manifested with Qi. Instead, they are the Black Blade Swords that I bought from the system before I turned them into my sword cores to imitate the Sky Sword Core!

'I wasn't able to move them unless I comprehended the sword crown, yet they suddenly reacted on their own as if they had their own minds. Just what is going on?! Could it be that these swords already had awakened their own spirits, and now they reacted on their own when they sensed the sword heart?

'But it didn't make any sense since Avos just explained that without a life bond and my will, no spirit sword can enter my sword heart. Not to mention, I should only be able to accept a single sword, not two…'

Ace was incredulous, as he wanted to question Avos, but then he thought about how his cultivation and laws were not worldly but heavenly, and the sword cores were once the system's item, so he knew who he should ask these questions.

But at this moment, Ace's mind suddenly became blank as a peculiar sensation spread into his body. The sword phantom behind him was pitch black and kept expanding as it absorbed more and more heavenly Qi.

After the sword phantom reached 100 meters in size, the suction force finally vanished, but if any normal cultivator even glanced at this pitch-black sword phantom, they would shred into countless pieces!

At this moment, the sword phantom suddenly begins to shrink and ingest into Ace's chest before completely vanishing, and in Ace's heart, a black ethereal symbol of a sword appears.

Thereby, Ace's aura suddenly begins to rise like a tilde wave, and his staggered cultivation begins to move!

The system voice rang at this moment,

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[Congregation on breaking into Stage-5 of Martial and Soul Cultivations]

[Next Stage EXP/SP: 8,500,000,000/8,500,000,000]

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[Congregation on breaking into Stage-6 of Martial and Soul Cultivations]

[Next Stage EXP/SP: 10,000,000,000/10,000,000,000]

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[Congregation on breaking into Stage-7 of Martial and Soul Cultivations]

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[Martial Cultivation: Heavenly Dark Law Comprehension Realm [Stage-7]]

[EXP: 10,000,000,000/15,000,000,000]

[Soul Cultivation: Heavenly Black and White Wind Soul Core [Stage-7]]

[SP: 10,000,000,000/15,000,000,000]

[Elemental Orb: 0/1]

=====

Ace also snapped out of his blank state at this moment. When he saw all the notifications of him breaking three stages all at once and felt his power, he knew it wasn't a dream!

"What happened? System, explain it to me clearly! First, my sword cores reacted on their own, and then I broke three stages without using any materials or Qi stones or Soul crystals?" Ace quickly questioned sternly.

"[Host will know once you undergo the 8th heavenly punishment and upgrade the system!]"

This was the simple and cold response he got after he was completely ignored, no matter how much he called the system.

Ace's expression was dark. The system didn't tell him about the sword heart at first, and then, this sudden development of the sword cores and his receiving so many EXP and SP right after that filled him with uncertainty.

'Don't tell me the system level is no longer sufficient to analyze things related to the upper heaven? After all, despite me having the knowledge, it still didn't reveal the full information…' Ace could only think of this reason to calm himself.

"Forgive me, Avos, but I don't even know what happened just now. But do you know?" Ace then asked Avos perplexedly.

He felt extremely apologetic. He knew there was some kind of trouble with the sword heart, and now he might not be able to accept Avos in his sword heart since both sword cores had probably acquired that spot.

"I don't know; my vision was cut the moment Master Ace fell into a trance. But from what I've seen so far, I think those two streaks of light were swords that you nurtured since you started walking the path of the sword, right?

"But even I don't know how they could react on their own and even enter your heart in pairs when there should be only one spot while you're still at the initial stage of sword heart!" Avos were incredulous, as he didn't even know what kind of phenomenon it was despite his deep knowledge of the sword and upper heaven.

"Indeed, they are my earliest swords, and I think I know why this happened. It's probably because my cultivation is not orthodox. You once said you could enter my martial space and then recover there, right? I think you'll know what I'm saying once you sense what kind of Qi I've cultivated."

Ace sighed. The next moment, Avos appeared in his hand, suddenly turning into a streak of violet light and then entering Ace's martial space.

At this moment, Ace's martial space was as vast as a world and filled with a dark heavenly Qi ocean. In the center of this vast darkness was the dark void, and above it was Ace's hooded martial soul hovering cross-legged above the dark void, with flames flickering within its hooded face.

The moment a miniature version of Avos appeared right in front of Ace's martial sword, the heavenly dark Qi suddenly stirred in his martial space and began to surround the sword.

This was one of the innate traits of the spirit treasures. Once they accept a master with their master's Qi essence, they can be nurtured within the soul or martial space.

But the moment Ace's heavenly Qi surrounded Avos, it suddenly began to tremble with fear and cried in alarm, "T-this Qi! It's harmful to me. Please send me out!"

Ace sighed in resignation as the Avos vanished and reappeared in his hand. "It appeared that if I wanted to accept a spirit treasure, whether in my martial or soul spaces or even the sword heart, it first needed to be able to endure my Qi like Moira.

"Forgive me, Avos, but it seems you still need to remain in my space until I find the problem to this solution. If I used you as you are, I think I'll harm you just like other swords. But don't worry, I found a way!"

Ace gritted his teeth in exasperation. He never expected the problem with his heavenly Qi's overbearing effect on other treasures to remain even on spirit treasures.

Although it wasn't as bad, he knew it would only be the case until he entered the law state. Once his heavenly Qi became more powerful, any treasure without a Heavenly trait would meet the same end.

"I… I understand!" Avos replied without asking further questions since he had experienced it himself; what kind of overbearing effect did Ace's Qi have on him! Since he was injured, it was even more apparent.

So, he didn't question or ask why and obediently kept his calm and useless thoughts to himself since he could now feel how frustrated Ace was with their new bond.

Ace really felt sorry and vowed to solve this problem no matter what.

"Thank you for your understanding." His eyes turned sharp like swords at this moment, "Now, tell me how I can use those swords in my sword heart. Because I didn't feel anything except I have boundless power and the urge to split apart everything!"