Eternal Thief

Just ten minutes after Ace hid in the hallway, footsteps rang, making Ace vigilant as he didn't even dare to breathe.

Thereupon, a puppet servant holding a golden tray walked out from the other side.

After sensing that its cultivation was in the realm of his soul-probing range, Ace quickly used it without getting noticed by the walking puppet servant.

The puppet servant had no idea his memories of the inner palace were getting annexed by a thief as it emotionlessly walked toward its destination.

Becoming more confident when he saw no guard inside, he started to follow the puppet servant in stealth while annexing his memories and processing them at lightning speed.

The more memories he annexed, the calmer he became, and after following the puppet servant to a cross hallway with a grand door in the center, he stopped and took a turn abandoning the puppet servant since it served its purpose.

It turned out he was still at the entrance halls of the inner palace, and the puppet servant was going toward the imperial kitchen.

So, Ace turned around and headed toward the depth of the vast palace, it was like a maze, and without the knowledge of those pathways, he might stumble upon some hidden trap or expert, or even worse, find himself in front of a high-ranking puppet servant with two digits.

He had to admit this entire palace was filled with traps and hidden experts working under the Demon Emperor. Anyone who wanted to attack this place might as well just commit suicide.

Ace was glad that he didn't have to go anywhere near the Demon Temple because that area was completely mysterious and closed to everyone. Even the imperial family members couldn't approach it.

As Ace continued to move in deep into the palace, he was quite tense but also excited since the target was almost within his reach.

After sneaking around for half an hour and passing different hallways, he appeared on a pathway that was open, and a marble bridge was connected to the other side of the palace.

But Ace didn't dare to step foot on this bridge because it was marked pitch black on the fate map, in fact, the entire area forwards the dyed-in-black, and the red area ended here.

This was the bridge that led toward the core of the imperial palace and also where the quarters of the Emperor and Empress were as well as the imperial library and probably the imperial treasury.

No one had ever infiltrated the imperial palace before, much less up to this point.

But Ace's destination was also this exact place since he could now see the black demon temple from here, which was just behind the huge doom of the core palace.

From the puppet servant's memories, Ace knew no one would come here unless summoned, and it was already in the middle of the night, so the chances of someone crossing this bridge from both sides were almost null.

Nevertheless, Ace still didn't dare to let his guard down and turned back to a hall and started to recover his Qi while hiding. He wanted to be in peak condition for his escape plan because it was the most challenging part of this entire foray.

Infiltrating the imperial palace was a piece of cake in front of escaping while robbing something from the Demon Temple or worse from the Demon Emperor or the imperial treasury since there was a chance the random treasure might be from these two sides.

Whichever the treasure came from, Ace knew he couldn't stay for a second more and had to exit the imperial domain!

Over an hour passed, and Ace finally opened his eyes as his heart was beating faster and faster, he inhaled a cold breath to calm down, but he just couldn't because he knew the moment of truth had arrived.

Ace reached the bridge again as his thievish eyes were locked on the demon temple.

The next moment, a heavenly talisman appeared in his hand; this was the random pick-pocket talisman!

"System, use this Heavenly Talisman on a 10-mile area ahead of me and bring me the elemental orb, damnit!" Ace commanded while holding his breath.

The heavenly talisman vanished at this moment, and the System's voice rang,

=====

[Random Pick Pocket Heavenly Talisman has been activated in a 10-mile area ahead of the Host's current position!]

[10 seconds until the process is complete…]

[9 seconds until the process is complete…]

[8 seconds…]

[7 sec…]

[6…]

…

=====

Ace's heart was in his throat as he looked at the timer with bloodshot eyes. Every second was torture for him!

If the elemental orb didn't appear, he might really cough blood today!

---

The Demon Temple was completely closed off from the outside world, and the inside of the demon temple was filled with dark mist. Whoever entered could not see anything; on the contrary, this dark mist was deadly miasma for any cultivator below the peak of the law awareness realm!

In the middle of this demon temple, deep within this miasma mist, was a 100-meter tall Baphomet's pitch-black statue hovering above a long staircase, giving off an approachable feeling, and anyone who saw it would compel to kneel.

A black altar filled with shining light-blue ruins was right under Baphomet's statue, on top of the staircase.

A blue pillar of light rose from this altar, and it was connected with a huge Scepter in Baphomet's statue's hand. Making this long crystal Scepter look ethereal.

At the top of this 50-meter-long Scepter was a blinding light spot continually crackling with furious dark lightning.

Right at this moment, right above this blinding lightning spot, a dark ethereal thread suddenly shot from within the space itself, and the next moment the blinding lightning was completely gone!

Thereby, the shining Scepter suddenly lost its light as if someone had removed the energy source. The light pillar also shattered before the Baphomet's hovering statue started to tremble, threatening to crush the staircase.

"Hmm… W-what?!" A bewildered ancient voice suddenly rang from the top of the staircase altar…

---

At this moment, Ace's eyes were bloodshot with trepidation as he watched the timer at its near end,

=====

[2…]

[1…]

---

[The Random Pick Pocket Talisman has been successful in Pick Pocketing a Grade-8 Treasure!]

[The treasure had been delivered to the living thief's space!]

--

[Reward(s)]

-Rewards: 100,000 Thief Points

---

[Thieveries Rank(s)]

-Middle-Level Thievery(s): 1

---

[Thief Point(s): 93,100,100]

---

[System detects the Thief Job Mission has been completed!]

---

[Please Leave a Thief Farewell Note to continue!]

-Time: 00: 00: 59

---

[Note: The Host has only one minute to write and choose a location for the Thief Farewell Note, or if times run out, the System will choose on behalf of the Host.]

=====

Ace couldn't be bothered with all notifications right now, especially with the Thief Farewell Note, which should appear only at the high-level thievery, but the job mission completion triggered it.

But that one minute was the time for his escape before the thief symbol emerged on that huge demon temple!

Although he didn't know what kind of grade-8 treasure he stole, it was apparent that the treasure came from the demon temple since the job mission was also completed!

Right at this moment, another notification rang, which made Ace nearly scream,

=====

[System detects Lightning Elemental Orb in host thief's space!]

[Did the Host want to start the breakthrough process?]

=====

Ace didn't let this mirth get the better of him. Since he had gotten what took all this risk, it was time to escape before the whole imperial domain went bloody for him.

"System activates the Dark Owl Wings!" He quickly commanded.

Ace had only tried the Dark Owl Wings once as Archie, and this was his second try and the only chance to escape from this place.

=====

[Dark Owl Wings has been summoned!]

-Dark Owl Wings (Initial)

-Description: Able to summon Wings of Dark Owl!

-Ability: Fly

-Status: Active

-Time: 00:29:59

=====

The next moment, the dark fog suddenly seeped from Ace's back before it spread and turned into long pitch-black wings.

When the wingspan reached 5 meters, the expansion stopped as the magnificence pitch black wings were spread behind Ace's back just like his thief symbol.

The dark mist was exuding from these ethereal black wings as if they were aflame.

With a thought, those wings suddenly swung, and the next moment, Ace was shot out of the open bridge toward the dark sky!

However, Ace knew this wasn't enough, and he instantly started using the space step as he appeared higher and higher within an instant.

Right then, Ace saw something that left him to stupefy and horrid.

The Demon Temple, which was peak was still not in his view, suddenly started to tremble as immense pressure descended on the entire imperial palace, including Ace, who was almost two miles into the sky.

Ace's heart palpitated as he thought those space-step talismans were too slow. But he knew just how fast he was, but in front of this pressure, he felt as slow as an ant.

At this moment, an ancient voice filled with boundless fury rang in the entire imperial domain,

"WHO DARE TO STEAL IMPERIAL DEMON SCEPTER?!"