Eternal Thief

On the second day after the castle's banquet,

Ace was practicing the Lock Eraser King Technique, and he was already at the expert level of the Lock Eraser Master stage and moving toward the Perfectionist level at a fast pace.

He knew if he wanted to accomplish the second chain mission; he had to be at least a Lock Eraser Grandmaster at the Novice level.

That was why he was now solely focusing on this technique right now, and after reaching the peak of the heavenly sea realm, his cognition speed has become twice as fast as before.

Furthermore, he was planning to visit the royal library at noon and see what kind of knowledge he got. He was hoping to find more knowledge about the ruins and also adjust his plans accordingly.

At this moment, Ace frowned slightly before he flip his hand and the Myriad Miles Communication Cube appeared in his hand, and it was flashing.

'What did he want now?' Ace was silently vigilant of All-Knowing Parrot after he visited the lionheart shop.

He knew this guy was scheming something while hiding in the lionheart shop, and he might get dragged into something without even knowing it. That was why he was circumspect.

Ace calmly active the Myriad Miles Communication Cube and All-Knowing Parrot's overlapping voice rang, "Mr. Sky, how's have you been? I hope you like my arrangement?"

'How pretentious,' Ace derided in his heart.

He said, "It was indeed to my liking, and I'm quite grateful for your help. I'm looking forward to working with you."

All-Knowing Parrot's voice sounded, "Oh, is that so? Then the feeling is mutual, and I think it's time to form the Hex Soul Pack as well. What do you think?"

Ace's eyes narrowed. 'He's really conspiring something!'

He said surprisingly, "It's time? Do you mean?"

"Yes, my matter ended earlier than expected, and I also heard the top ten will leave for the second phase in two more days. Although I don't know why you're mixing with the participants, I can understand you didn't trust me enough to divulge it.

"That's why we should form the Hex Soul Pack as soon as possible. It'll be more convenient if we can speak without any restraints and help each other without being worried about betrayal.

"I'm about to enter the blade domain and if you agree with this arrangement, please come to the lionheart shop. This will also ensure both of our security if we meet in the inner domain market. So, what do you think?"

'What an alacritous guy. He had already arranged everything and ensure that he didn't leave any loopholes. If it was someone else, they might've thought it was safe to meet with him since the market is the most populated area of the inner domain and no one would dare to fight there, or the knights will be alerted.

'However, I already knew he was in that store from the start and waiting for something, or he would've contacted me before. Now it seemed he's quite confident in dealing with me and that's why he's pushing me to decide after preparing.

'If I back down now, he might leak the information about my identity to the blade demon king, and he'll easily remove me from the picture altogether. Furthermore, he should already guess I'm after something because of Feng's popularity… hehe, but you make a grave mistake.'

Ace's eyes turned cold when he thought how this guy had cornered Feng without even doing anything and if he was someone else, he had to meet All-Knowing Parrot since they would be worried about the identity getting leaked after coming so far.

He said with elation, "Fantastic! I'll be there in the evening."

All-Knowing Parrot's voice sounded in agreement, "That'll be for the best. See you."

With that, the cube went dormant again.

"You're screwing with the wrong guy…" Ace smirked coldly before closing his eyes again.

---

Inside the lionheart shop, on the top floor.

All-Knowing Parrot put the cube away but her bewitching eyes were narrowed, 'How did he agree so easily? Is he confident in evading if I acted, or is he simply a fool? No, he's definitely not a fool. No fool can lead the entire eight provinces by the nose.

'Was I too hasty? But I can't miss this chance and my plan is flawless. Once he entered and formed the hex soul pack with me, I can control him and kill him with a thought. But if he vilified or whack before that, I can easily restrain him with this grade-4 dark earth array.'

In the end, she simply shook her head and laugh at her fantasies. She was just too cautious.

How could a mere thief can escape her scheming and even if, by some miracle, it happened, she wasn't worried at all for her safety!

On the contrary, it would completely expose Feng's hidden identity if he acted rashly, especially if she didn't get what she desired!

'Well, it'll be more entertaining that way…' her eyes shone with a dark glint in the end.

---

Today was a cloudy day as dark clouds filled the golden sky.

Ace left the castle after spending the entire noon in the royal library and absorbed everything that he can, but he could tell this wasn't the secret library where all the secrets were hidden.

However, it was enough to acquire new information, especially about the ruins of this world. He found that all those ruins were from the war period when all races fought for supremacy and many mighty figures sacrificed themselves for the bright future of their race.

Nevertheless, he wasn't moved by those legends at all and left the castle for his meeting with All-Knowing Parrot; he was looking forward to it.

Although he wasn't restricted by anyone to leave to enter the blade castle, he was still careful about being followed.

He left after in the sham of going to the life wine pavilion for drinking before he would leave for the expedition and no one would find it strange as well. However, he didn't take any carriage or any escort and was left alone.

This time, no one followed him, and he easily changed his disguise into the same demon he had entered the lionheart shop last time.

When he reached the lionheart shop, he opened the live fate map and was somewhat surprised by seeing All-Knowing Parrot was still inside and wasn't afraid he would reveal her whereabouts.

'Either he's overly confident or just wasn't afraid I would tell anyone…' Ace thought as he entered the familiar building.

This time, he was directly led by an attendant toward the upper floors.

On the ninth floor, he saw Aliya again, but she wasn't like before, and her eyes were filled with mortification and indignation as she looked at Ace.

'I didn't offend her. What's the deal with her?' Ace felt she had some kind of mental problem and pretend he noticed nothing.

"Follow me!" She snorted and moved toward the upper floor, and Ace follow suit.

When they reached the last floor, Aliya led him toward a closed room.

She said, "You may enter, mistress is waiting."

'Mistress? So, All-Knowing Parrot is a woman?' Ace was astonished, but he didn't show anything and entered the room.

Aliya closed the door before an array plate appeared in her hand and she activated it, locking the entire tenth floor.

Inside the room,

Ace saw a veil demoness with nation toppling figure, calmly setting on a chair.

She signaled toward the chair on the other side of the table with her slender hand and spoke in her melodious tone, "Please, take the seat, Mr. Sky."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Ace said with a smile while he took the seat.

All-Knowing Parrot said in an ambiguous tone, "It seemed Mr. Sky didn't expect me to be a woman, right?"

"Well, I would be lying if I said I'm not surprised, but not as much as finding out the All-Knowing Parrot to be such a beauty." Ace flatter.

All-Knowing Parrot chuckled and mysteriously said, "Well, you're the first to see me in the entire eight provinces. Are you sure I'm not a fake?"

Ace coolly said, "If you're fake, then the Hex Soul Pack won't be able to form and besides I have means to know if you're Boss All-Knowing Parrot or not, and I'm sure you're the real one."

He was just guessing; he didn't know any about the hex soul pack at all, but he could tell only the hex demons can form it!

"Hehe, that's true, all right." She calmly admitted it before she said, "Can you show me your actual face?"

Ace shook his head, "I'm not worth seeing, and I can't show my face to you without completely trusting you, so apologies. Besides, you're also hiding your appearance."

All-Knowing Parrot chuckled and didn't pursue the matter.

She turned impassive and spoke, "Then let's not beat around the bush before we form the hex soul pack. We need to sign a soul contract…!"