Eternal Thief

A week passed since Ace had crossed the Heavenly Punishment.

Today, two demons in the black mountain demon institute's robes appeared at the edge of the charred crater created by the heavenly thunder.

"Just what kind of beast caused this?" The fiery demon questioned as he looked at the sheer scale of destruction and felt his blood run cold.

The nightmare demon's expression was also solemn as he replied, "At least peak manifestation realm cultivator. Furthermore, there is no trace left of any aura, so we could only guess. But since the Principal sent us here to investigate, he must've discovered something."

"However, this place is too far away from the institute and is around the core region of the black mountains. Only those three fellows could cause such destruction that could even alert the Principal so far away." The fiery demon sighed, "If not for the thief search, the principal won't have even bothered sending us here and might've come himself."

The nightmare demon sneered coldly, "We are constantly being pressured by the imperials day after day, and now they're even starting to skim through the students of four institutes. I heard a few days ago they suspect a core grade student and then soul search him, turning him into a vegetable.

"The Principal was completely helpless since two Grand Dukes were there. If anything, this just proves that the rumors about that thief robbing the demon temple might be true."

A hint of fear flashed past the fiery demon's eyes as he retorted in a low voice, "Don't talk about it, or we'll be in big trouble."

"Hmph, who can hear us in this wilderness?" The nightmare demon sneered.

"Is that a fact?" An aged voice suddenly startled both demons.

They instantly looked up at the sky, and their eyes widened in horror when they saw a giant figure hovering in the sky majestically.

The Demon Ancestor coolly stated, "It seemed you, little fellows, are forgetting about our past… sigh…."

The next moment, the clear sky suddenly turned dark with black lightning!

---

Meanwhile, Ace, who was already hundreds of miles apart from the crater and moving swiftly toward the edge of the demon continent, suddenly halted his step and looked back at the horizon with a frown.

"Why I'm feeling uneasy all of a sudden?" Ace mumbled in uncertainty, "It was the right choice not to go back just because I broke through. It is still too dangerous since the demons are still looking for me. I should leave as soon as possible."

Ace's eyes shimmered sharply before he continued on his path. Right now, he wanted to leave the black mountain range because even after he broke through, the fate map was still dyed red.

Even though the black area was gone, it was still pretty dangerous to remain in this place, and after the Thief Sense replaced the old soul sense, Ace could sense danger in the one-mile radius even more clearly now.

Furthermore, now he could also feel a sense of danger while traveling in the black mountain range, especially in the area he was currently in. He was at the bottom of a mountain rift, and there was no sign of life as eerie silence filled the place.

Ace took this path because he didn't want to climb that tall mountain. It was too time-consuming, and this rift was probably a shortcut.

However, when the night descent, the path completely enshrouded into darkness and fog, and now that he was this deep into this rift, he finally noticed that he was going further down, and the rift was at least a mile deep and even more.

Ace activated the live fate map again, now that the compass was at grade four, it could show traps and formation of grade-6 which was massively helpful to Ace, and its range was also increased to a mile radius with his thief sense.

These traps and formations included natural formations like the ones formed by an elemental orb.

But Qi consumption was still quite high even after his breakthrough, but it was much better than before.

At this moment, Ace's eyes suddenly widened because a Light Silver spot suddenly appeared a mile away from his current position.

But this was also a red fate location, meaning this silver fate location might have a powerful existence hidden there or around the vicinity.

Because a silver fate location represented a treasure that benefits Ace, he won't even think for a second that such treasures won't be eyed by someone else. At this juncture, only a few things were helpful to him.

Still, he wanted to see just what it was, and he didn't mind taking it if he could.

But first, Ace stopped and set up multiple concealment formations before he questioned the system, "System, do I have enough material to break into the Eighth Stage of my soul and martial cultivation?"

Ace wanted to wait before consolidating his cultivation, but he found he didn't need to. Even after a week, there was nothing to consolidate, and his foundation was like an unshakable mountain.

So, he stopped hesitating and decided to increase his cultivation from stage-1 to stage-8 directly.

It would also increase his prowess greatly and his chances of acquiring whatever were hidden in this silver fate location, or at least he would be able to escape.

The system replied with a simple word, "[Yes!]"

Ace's lips curled, and he said, "Alright, do it, but use all the grade-1 materials first before moving toward grade-2 and so on. Don't use higher-grade materials before using all the lower ones!"

The system complied, and the next moment, Ace felt a torrent of massive Heavenly Soul Qi, and Martial Soul Qi started to pour into his true soul and marital space.

Ace was paying attention to the sea river core in his martial space, which was revolving in the center of the Qi sea, and the Qi sea was revolving around it like a whirl.

At this moment, heavenly darkness Qi started to pour into the dark Qi sea core, and Ace noticed a faint dark blue ring right a centimeter down from the first dark blue ring that began to appear as more and more Qi got absorbed.

While in his soul core was getting redder and redder as more soul Qi got absorbed into it.

As more and more Qi entered his true soul and martial space, the materials he accumulated on the demon continent started to vanish at a terrifying speed.

When the second dark blue ring was fully condensed and the third was half done, all the grade-one materials were gone, and grade-2 materials turned into dust afterward.

After two hours, the fifth dark blue ring started to condense, and half of the grade-3 martial materials were gone while the grade-3 soul materials were already long gone, and now all those grade-4 soul crystals started to turn into dust.

After 15 hours, when the eighth dark blue ring was condensed, all the grade-4 and some grade-5 martial materials were exhausted, while all the grade-5 soul materials were gone.

Just these eight breakthroughs had cost Ace over half of his fortune!

Nevertheless, Ace would do the same even if he had another chance because right then, his soul core was double the size before as it looked like a crimson sun, and red soul Qi was flaring over it like fire.

Not only that but Ace's thief sense was now spread within a 3-mile radius!

Last but not least, the dark Qi sea core had eight shimmering dark blue rings all over it and a small space left at the bottom, which was for the ninth ring.

The vortex of the sea was even more black at this moment as dark lightning was rumbling within Qi sea.

At this moment system's voice rang,

=====

[Congratulation, host, on achieving the Eighth Stage of Heavenly Dark Sea Core Realm and Eighth Stage of Heavenly Red Wind Soul Core!]

[Host status has been updated!]

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[Martial Cultivation: Heavenly Dark Sea Core [Stage-8]]

[EXP: 0/150,000,000]

[Soul Cultivation: Heavenly Red Wind Soul Core [Stage-8]]

[SP: 0/150,000,000]

[Elemental Orb: 0/1]

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(AN: 1st Stage = 1M/ 2nd Stage = 2.5M/ 3rd Stage = 5M/ 4th Stage = 10M/ 5th Stage = 25M/ 6th Stage = 50M/ 7th Stage = 100M)

=====

Ace's eyelids flashed open as dark lightning shimmered within them; he felt like he could kill a peak platinum soul realm cultivator with a single strike right now.

A cold smile suddenly appeared on his face as he was itching to find someone to test his strength, but he knew it was only the feeling because of his breakthrough.

But he was confident in hiding under the detection of manifestation realm cultivator now.

So, he no longer hesitated, and after collecting the formations, he activated the live fate map again, and a map covering a three-mile radius appeared.

He could literally 'see' all the terrains, and he finally had a clear look at the silver fate location. He was astonished because in this silver fate location were three red fate points!