Eternal Thief



At this moment, Ace was fully focused on the Heavenly Formation Coin in front of him. With both hands, golden Heavenly Soul Qi was pouring out and completely absorbed by the Heavenly Formation Coin.

Every time the coin absorbed a particular amount of Qi, Ace's hands would start to move into blurry movements, and then a faint dark blue line would appear in the coin. 

At this moment, 5% of the coin's surface was filled with those dark blue lines, and their shape was incomprehensive. 

When Ace started to carve the heavenly array runes on the Heavenly Formation Coin, he thought it would not be much difficult. But only after starting did he understand just how naïve he had been. 

First, he needed to understand that rune, and then he needed to form hundreds of hand signs while focusing his Qi on the coin and shaping it into rune symbols. But even the slightest mistake would ruin everything, and then he had to start again!

It's been three weeks, and Ace had only been able to complete craft a single coin with the array rune after failing multiple times. 

Nevertheless, as he was comprehending these heavenly array runes and creating them, he was also starting to control his Heavenly Soul Qi more and could feel the Wind element in it. 

He discovered that his wind law attainment seemed to be also important in this rune crafting, and the more he practiced, the deeper he understood his own soul Qi which he had been neglecting for quite a while. 

As for what was going on outside, he wasn't worried since both Noa and Freya were holding the reins. 

Right at this moment, a system interface abruptly opened in front of him, completely startling him, and the dark blue lines on the coin instantly burst into particles. 

A thick vein appeared on Ace's temple after a few hours of his hard work, puffed into the smoke because of the system's abrupt interference. 

However, the system didn't seem to care, and when he heard what it had to say and looked at that interface, his expression took a massive turn. 

=====

[House Leader Mission: Infiltration]

[Condition 4: [Map the target area and the threats] has been completed by Winter Fox. The rewards have been released!]

[Condition 5: [Infiltrate the place where Alina's being held hostage] has been completed by Winter Fox. The rewards have been released!]

[Condition 6: [Escape with Alina] has been completed by Winter Fox. The rewards have been released!]

---

[House Points (House Leader): 1,300,910 (-5,750,000)]

---

[House Leader Mission: [Infiltration!] has been concluded!]

===== 

Ace stared at the interface as if he was dreaming, but he knew he wasn't because his house points were really deducted. 

'This is far sooner than I had expected…' Ace's eyes shimmered with ecstasy as he didn't care about those house points since those rewards were set up according to the difficulty of the mission. 

Since Winter had completed this mission, it meant she had earned those rewards as well as his gratitude. 

Nevertheless, Ace still felt Winter had acted too fast, and she didn't even bother to alert him first. However, he was expecting to create this sort of chance for Winter by sowing discord within the humans and other races.

But now that it was done, he felt somewhat flabbergasted since he was under the impression that he needed to do the rescue himself. Ace had nearly forgotten that Winter was a spy, to begin with, and she had tons of experience in infiltrating enemy bases.

'Alina is with her!' Ace's heart raced just at the thought of Alina being with Winter now and safe and sound. 

So, he quickly closed the panel and sent Winter a call post hastily, completely forgetting about the rune crafting or his effort since he now felt rejuvenated by this excellent news. 

Thereupon, Winter picked up the call after 10 seconds, and her sarcastic voice rang. 

"I was just wondering when you're going to call and give me praise me." 

"Well done! I'm really thankful for what you've done for me, and I owe you a lot." Ace didn't hold back on his praise since he was really grateful to Winter, and it wasn't a lie. 

Then he quickly asked multiple questions all at once, "How is she? Is she with you? Where are you guys…"

"Woah… slow down!" Winter's perplexed voice rang at this moment as she was somewhat surprised hearing her cunning leader's childish questions. She even found a resemblance between Alina's urgency and Ace's. Both of them couldn't wait to meet each other. 

She even felt somewhat jealous of their bond. So, she lost interest in teasing him anymore and annoyingly said, "I'll give entire details, so stop acting like a baby…." 

Ace didn't care about his image right now as he was quite excited about Alina being fine, and they could finally meet after almost two decades of separation.

He then attentively listened to how Winter was able to act so quickly, and she even told him about Alina's condition when she found her, which made Ace's killing intent manifest. 

She also told him about Herman's having qualms with Alina meeting him, and he even seemed to be up to no good. 

When Ace heard Alina calling Herman 'Grandpa,' he instantly knew who this Herman was, and that hidden note appeared in his mind that Herman left that day when he took Alina without even letting them say goodbye. A chilly smile surfaced on his lips as he didn't have very good feelings for Herman to begin with. 

"… so this is the gist of it. Although I needed to discard a powerful pawn, that guy who showed up, in the end, was quite a massive trouble. Right now, we are moving toward the western shores from the central continent. 

"The entire continent is raging in war right now, so I don't think anyone would be able to bother with Alina for a little while. But that elder will soon regain her senses since now I'm out of her range. Although she won't remember anything, when she finds herself in that elder's arms, I'm sure things will turn worse. 

"Leaving the continent as quickly as possible is our top priority right now!" 

Ace's completely agreed with her statement, and he was glad that everything went according to Winter's plan. However, he wasn't happy about Winter using her new ability instantly to go there herself. Be couldn't blame her since he knew just how dangerous the mission had been. 

"Alright, keep her safe and keep an eye on that old man. If he showed any strange movements, abandon him." Coldness crept into his eyes, "When you enter the endless sea, I want you to sail your ship towards us. This way, we'll be saving tons of time."

A rare warm smile suddenly formed on his stern face, "Oh, and tell my Lil sis that I'm looking forward to meeting her, and don't you dare hide it, or I won't forgive you!"