Eternal Thief

Ace looked around and saw Noa was still deeply engrossed in her cultivation, and he could feel she was at the crucial juncture of breakthrough. 

'She's already at the Ninth Soul Gate Stage and very close to establishing a perfect foundation, so I should not disturb her and take a stroll out in the city.' 

After deciding to leave Noa here since this was the perfect safe place and no one will disturb or find her even if she causes a commotion while breaking through a major realm. 

He silently left the hidden chamber after two years of isolation, and he felt quite refreshed when he felt the scorching breeze of summer and golden sunlight on his face. 

There wasn't anyone close by, and he knows a water source around this ruin. 

After taking a bath and changing into his thief trainee hood and adjusting its color and size to his liking, he felt much more relaxed and complete. He quickly changed his face to Pablo and, in stealth, left the Silver Iron Demon State.

Ace's perfect pulseless stealth was so strong that probably no one in the entire Iron Demon City could not find or sense him if he didn't want them to. Only a soul realm cultivator could sense him with its strong martial or soul sense. 

Furthermore, because of his trainee's hood effect, which grants him a 5% increase in Thief-related skills, he didn't have to be afraid of someone who just enter the soul realm as well! 

Now he was confident to protect himself in the inner provinces of Mighty Demon Continent. As long as he didn't encounter a Demon Duke or Demon King level character, he was a fish in the water! 

But this doesn't mean he can do thieveries here like there was no tomorrow. He had to be meticulous in his craft because if he drew too much attention to himself, many powerful demons might come after him. 

Nevertheless, he had already decided how to start on the mighty demon continent, and his first target was naturally the Iron Demon City! 

Two years ago, when he took Pablo's face and left him alive, he had already made this city his starting point. Although, he failed to create a secret organization because of the variable, All-Knowing Parrot. 

It didn't stop his plans. All he had to do was to make some changes, and he was back on track. 

Ace finally stop using his pulseless stealth and started to leisurely walk around the clean city streets, which were made of some brownstone bricks, making the city more beautiful and harmonizing with the unique tall buildings of demon civilization. 

Many demons glance at Ace or Pablo, who had an expressionless face and wore a long blue robe with a silver 'V' shape on the back, giving him the look of a refined young master of a prominent clan. 

Pablo was handsome, to begin with, and Ace's demeanor make him even more eye-catching, even if he didn't want to. Ace was like a young scholar and this demonic look gave him the air of a Young Wise Warrior. 

Ace didn't pay attention to those demons, and he was going toward a specific place where he wanted to go from the start but held himself back years ago. 

After some twists and turns, a tall blue building with twenty floors appeared in front of Ace, which was quite bustling with activities. A wine bottle shape name board was hanging on the entrance, 'Hell's Liquor'!   

Ace come to this place because he liked Jade Wine very much and wanted to try Demon Continent's Wine as well. 

Because of Pablo and Buck's memories, he found out that these liquors were nothing like Jade Wine of lower lands because they were made with special means and high-quality materials which don't even exist on Human Continent. 

Every Demon like drinking to the core and that's why there were many alcohol shops in every city and there weren't as many restaurants as these alcohol shops! This was a fact! 

Ace liked this prospect of Demon Continent a lot, and he was somewhat sick of drinking only Jade Wine all the time, but he was helpless since there wasn't any superb wine like Jade Wine in lower lands. 

However, things were different in Might Demon Continent. There were thousands of types of alcohol, and some demons even fought tooth and nail for them in auctions. 

There was even a discipline of vinification and brewing in Alchemy called Alcohol Alchemy and many demons practiced it, and they were famous all over the golden sky world! 

Ace enter Hell's Liquor and saw many demons sitting at round tables. Some were sitting around a large counter and everyone was drinking and laughing. 

However, what draw Ace's attention was all those colorful alcohol bottles behind the counter, and he could smell the scent of strong intoxicating alcohol even from the door. 

Ace felt even more curious as he quickly sat on an empty chair beside the counter and looked around with great interest. 

A female demon wearing revealing clothing with dark green skin quickly approached Ace and was a little bit shocked seeing it was a silver-iron demon and by the look of it his status was probably quite high in the silver-iron demon clan. 

With a coquettish smile, she asked him, "Young Master, what can I do for you?" 

Ace naturally wasn't interested in demons, much less this bimbo, so he blurted, "Give me the special 'Hell's Visitor', please." 

The demoness felt this was somewhat regrettable since 'Pablo' didn't seem interested in her and quickly bring his order without showing it on her face. This was a normal occasion here. 

Many demonesses wanted to grab powerful inflection demons' thighs, so they could sour with a single step, but alas if it was just that simple!

A beautiful wine glass filled with fiery red color wine was quickly placed in front of Ace. He knew this was 4-star alcohol, since these wines were made of Qi herbs and Qi fruits by alchemists, and that's why they can also be measured with the same grades or ranks. 

Without stopping, Ace quickly drank a mouthful and his eyes widen ever so slightest. He felt his mouth was on fire for a moment before a sweet yet sour flavor mixed with different tastes filled his tongue. 

"Good Wine!" Ace couldn't help but praise, compared with this wine, the Jade Wine seemed like shit. 

Ace quickly finished a wine glass and was about to order more when suddenly a system's notification rang. 

=====

[Consumed a small amount of liquid with a high density of Qi]

[EXP: 1]

---

[Martial Cultivation: Heavenly Dark Sea [Stage-3]]

[EXP: 21,001/50,000]

[Soul Cultivation: Orange Wind Soul Core [Stage-3]]

[SP: 20,000/50,000]

=====

Ace was suddenly stunned with a blank expression when he quickly come to his sense and grinned ear to ear, 'Heh, a new way of acquiring EXP and I like this one the most!' 

Ace didn't seem too surprised by this sudden discovery because this was made of Qi herbs and Qi fruits. On the contrary, he would've been surprised if the system wouldn't give him any EXP for this! 

"One more!" Ace said out loud with a hint of excitement. 

A demon who was sitting a chair away from Ace couldn't help but smirk, "Brother, it seemed you aren't afraid of death to even dare to drink Hell's Visitor like water!" 

This demon had kind intentions because this wine was like a four-star medicine and far more potent than that because too many materials were used to make it. If consumed too much, one could get seriously injured or even Qi deviation was a possibility. 

However, Ace merely smiled and said, "What is the point of drinking with restrain? If I die, I'll die a sweet death!" 

The demon was rendered speechless for a moment before he grinned widely and nodded. "You have a point, brother! Waiter, give me and my brother here both Hell's Visitors!" 

Ace felt this demon was not bad, and they started to chat like friends while drinking. 

After a while, he couldn't help but ask when he saw many guards passing by, "Brother Pol, what's with all the serious patrolling do you know about it?"

This demon's name was Pol, and he was a Steel Iron Demon who earn his living by hunting in Iron Forest. 

"Brother, you don't know about the biggest event of Mad Thief's execution a year ago?" Pol looked at Pablo as if he was an alien.

Ace's attention was finally drawn when he heard the 'Thief' word and couldn't help but asked with uncertainty, "No, I wasn't in the City for some time and I just returned, so I don't know about it. But this mad thief character seemed quite intriguing!" 

Pol click his tongue in understanding and said, "No wonder you didn't know about the Mad Thief. Let me tell you, this thief almost brought Iron Demon City on the verge of destruction one and half years ago!"