Eternal Thief

"Then let's not beat around the bush. Before we form the hex soul pack, we need to sign a soul contract. "

Ace didn't reject her at all and serenely asked, "If I may ask, what will be the contents of this soul contract be?"

All-Knowing Parrot's eyes shone as she said, "It's simple, during the hex soul ritual we won't back down at the last moment and form this hex soul pack unpretentiously. That's all. If you want to add anything, you may."

'He'll definitely add the condition about malicious thoughts and plans… heh,' She thought with a hint of antipathy. But to her surprise, he didn't!

"It's fine, we didn't need to add any more conditions, but…" the demon looked at her with a meaningful smile.

"If Mr. Sky wanted to say something, please, by all means, I won't mind." She said, but her eyes shimmered with ambivalence because she can't see through this man. 'It's because of his disguise!'

'She fell for it!' Ace's eyes flashed with a wily glint at this moment. "It's like this, just like you prepared the soul contract to ensure nothing goes wrong. I also prepared a Soul Oath Contract.

"I wonder if you're willing to take the same oath as the soul contract with me as well. We both know these things can be tampered with. You can also check the soul oath contract, while I'll check the soul contract. This way, we'll both can perform the ritual without any worries."

All-Knowing Parrot's eyes narrowed as she felt something was amiss, but his request wasn't unreasonable at all. On the contrary, if he would've agreed quickly, she might've felt even more uneasy.

'But how did he get his hands on a soul oath contract? They are far more precious than soul contracts! He's even wanted to give me the soul oath contract to examine…'

She had to admit this meeting wasn't going according to her plan at all; she had prepared many reasons and means to deal with Ace if he tried to back down. But not only did he was agreeing with her, he even had his own intentions.

Now, if she didn't agree, won't the tables will turn on her?

She said, "Let's do as you suggest. Here's the soul contract. You can examine it as much as you want."

She took out a translucent sheet of gray paper and put it on the table while she carefully looked at the expressionless man. She wanted to see some kind of flaw or hint, but alas, she caught nothing.

How could she see through Ace? He even fooled the demon king, much less a first-stage diamond soul river cultivator like her.

"System, I want one thief house recruitment token!" Ace promptly commanded.

He has been waiting for this exact moment, for the moment he spoke with the All-Knowing Parrot.

He knew this person has tremendous potential because of her ability to build the strongest secret information network outside the royal zone and remain unscratched and hidden all this time.

Furthermore, she can acquire information from the most hidden and guarded areas, which means she had a very special ability. He has never forgotten how she found out about his element sword intent, despite his awareness.

This alone was enough for Ace to rope her into the Thief House and via her, he can control the entire Spica Syndicate and get all the information without doing anything.

If he had any doubts before, they all vanished after he visited the lionheart shop and discovered they can easily smuggle soul materials throughout the eight provinces, and he wanted her into the Thief House even more!

She was perfect for being a member of the thief house, and he knew if he invited her directly she would never agree and might even retaliate after finding out he wasn't a hex magic user.

That was why he didn't take any action against her, even after knowing she was still here, and letting her scheme as much as she wanted and have the feeling of always being in control while she was actually falling into his trap all along.

Now he was finally at the juncture of tricking her despite her carefulness. He felt more excited.

<strong>======</strong>

<strong>[One Thief House Recruitment Token has been delivered in the host's living thief's space.]</strong>

<strong>---</strong>

<strong>[Thief Point(s): 2,535,400]</strong>

<strong>======</strong>

Before, he had converted a hundred thousand TP into ten thousand HP to issue Noa the kill mission, and now a million was spent again on the recruitment token. Although he felt pain seeing his TP getting lower and lower, but he was also getting much more in return.

All-Knowing Parrot had naturally no idea about what Ace was thinking. She was waiting to examine the soul oath contract.

Thereafter, a crystalline pitch-black, palm-size token appeared in Ace's hand, engraved with his thief symbol on one side and two ancient god words, 'Thief House' on the other, just like a coin.

All-Knowing Parrot carefully looked at this delicate token.

"This is the soul oath contract. I get it with my inheritance, and I only have this one. It's very simple to use; we have to drip our blood on it, and afterward, we just have to repeat our oath while engulfing it with our Qi and the contract will be established." Ace lied through his teeth.

However, All-Knowing Parrot wasn't Noa and wasn't easy to hoodwink, she asked, "This contract has your famous symbol on it, was it made by you and what tribe are you from, I never heard any hex demon tribe who worshiped an owl?"

However, Ace had already seen this question coming, and he knew it won't be easy to trick her.

He said coolly, "Truth be told, I also don't know my tribe name, but my parents left this inheritance for me. As for the owl symbol, they say our owl was our sacred symbol, and it will always protect us and our tribe. That's why I took it as my symbol as well."

All-Knowing Parrot looked at Ace with a piercing gaze clearly didn't believe him at all.

Ace quickly followed, "To show there wasn't anything amiss with this soul oath token, I'll take the oath first, and then you can check the token before following through."

"System, if I drip my blood and use my Qi, it won't count, right?" Ace quickly asked, but he was quite confident it won't because he was the leader. How could he recruit himself, right?

<strong>"[No!]"</strong>

Ace felt relief and quickly pierce his finger and drip his blood on the token and said solemnly while engulfing the token in his earthen Qi,

"I, solemnly, vowed that I'll follow through the entire hex soul ritual and I have no malicious thoughts toward boss All-Knowing Parrot. I'm also a pure hex demon who didn't know his tribe's name, and if I lie, this token will shatter, and I'll receive a terrible backlash!"

He deliberately added more words to remove All-Knowing Parrot's doubts further.

Just as he thought, the All-Knowing Parrot's eyes soften and shimmered with uncertainty after hearing his oath and him using the token first, and nothing happened.

Ace put the token on the table. "This is enough to show my sincerity, right? Or you can also sign the soul contract first while putting in the same conditions and I can sign it first, but you have to add the condition of signing this contract afterward as well."

This was the last straw that broke the camel's back. All-Knowing Parrot didn't want to add such conditions in the soul contract because she had malicious thoughts, and it'll destroy the soul contract the moment she signed it and revealed her intentions.

No matter how she mused, Feng had demonstrated he wasn't scheming and even seemed sincere. He agreed to sign the soul contract first, but she still felt uneasy because of his demeanor.

'Am I overthinking things, and could he be a shrewd simpleton in the end?' She thought while looking at the dark token with the owl symbol.

All her life, she was very meticulous and calculative, and that's how she survived to this day. She built an empire no one can touch, but today, for some reason, she felt her astuteness and plans were going against her in front of this man.

Everything was perfect, too perfect, nevertheless. The other party was playing right in her hand and even handing his life to her, which she wanted, and yet, she had this strange feeling that nothing was in her hand and the man in front of her was the actual player all along.

But logically, it was also impossible since she believed her mind more than her gut feeling.

In the end, she felt her over-calculation was making her this way, and she picked up the dark token.

'I'll be safe no matter what, nothing can danger me!' A decisive glint flashed past her eyes after making sure there wasn't anything wrong with this token, it seemed completely ordinary.

"I just have to take the oath about the ritual, right?" She looked at the simple yet unfathomed man deeply!