Eternal Thief

The moment Eva stepped on the 90th step of the Heaven Reaching Devil Staircase, her soul space jolted, and her soul embryo began to grow rapidly while the suction force also doubled.

'Intermediate Stage 8th Tier Abyssal Devil!' Eva's heart raced with ecstasy.

Because of her unique inheritance and bloodline, her cultivation system was different from the normal cultivators. According to her memories, all the abyssal bloodline races used this system to measure their descendants' prowess.

The Abyssal Devil cultivation realms were divided into Tiers with four stages: Early, Intermediate, Late, and Pinnacle.

Each tier was equivalent to the cultivation realms of the Mortal Sky Heaven. The Eighth Tier was equivalent to the Eighth Realm of the Mortal Sky Heaven, the Law Comprehension Realm.

But the true difference lies within their ability to devour everything. This was the true foundation of abyssal devil races. However, since this cultivation system was unorthodox and different from the orthodox cultivation system of Heaven, they needed even more resources, and the difficulty of reaching the next realm was also many times difficult from the orthodox cultivation system.

In a sense, it was akin to Ace's heaven-defying cultivation technique, but it wasn't as overbearing since they can also only walk either the path of soul or martial.

Furthermore, the Abyssal Bloodline plays a huge part in it, and the higher and denser the bloodline, the easier and faster the cultivation speed.

Eva's Shadow Abyssal Devil bloodline was an extinct bloodline, and its true potential was a complete mystery.

But after breaking into the eighth tier, her cultivation suddenly becomes like a snail, and anything below grade 8 treasures becomes useless to her.

However, she never expected she would be able to break through by devouring this mysterious Qi emitting from the Heaven Reaching Devil Staircase and so quickly at that.

So, she was extremely excited, and now, at the 90th step, that mysterious Qi became even denser, and her cultivation was still climbing.

Without hesitation, she took another step, and that force became even more powerful; she needed to take some time to adjust to this devouring speed before moving forward.

It took her half an hour to reach the 96th step, and she completely forgot about her surroundings. At this moment, her cultivation increased again to the Late Stage of Tier-8!

Her devouring power increased almost tenfold at this moment, and that mysterious Qi no longer overwhelmed her.

Elated, she took another step and then another before she was only a step away from reaching the final staircase, and since she was fully adjusted to this force now, she finally stepped on the 99th staircase.

Right at this moment, Eva's vision blurred, and she found herself in the middle of an endless crimson space like it was made of blood.

"I've finally found the worthy seed!" An eerie voice filled with mirth rang in her mind.

Startled, Eva looked toward the source of this voice and found a rusty old crimson flagpole with a crystal red finial on top and a red tassel bound with the finial. The Flag color was translucent blue, and triangular in shape, with a crimson trigram engraved in its center. There were eight lifeless dark symbols in each section of the trigram, and a symbol of a half-white and half-black moon was in the center.

Eva was completely enticed by this flag, and this flag gave off the same mysterious Qi that she had been devouring all this time.

"What are you?" Eva coldly looked at the flag and questioned.

Since this flag can talk, and dragged her consciousness into this space, she was sure it was nothing but ordinary. She had some recollection about the spirit treasures in her memories.

"Heavenly Devil Soul Flag!" The flag replied without hesitation, "Little abyssal devil, quickly accept me as your master, and I'll bring you to the peak of Heaven!"

Eva was startled, "Accept you as my master? Are you kidding me? Hmph, you are just a rusty old flag. If anything, it should be your accepting me as your master not the other way around!"

She wasn't stupid enough to accept this strange flag as her master, in fact, she was wary of this flag who wanted to be her master. She knew if she fell for some old monster trick, she wouldn't even know how she died.

Furthermore, she wasn't greedy for this flag at all, she had Ace, and she didn't want to bring him any trouble.

"Hahahaha…" The Heavenly Devil Soul Flag burst into eerie laughter before saying amusingly, "Little abyssal devil, you indeed have guts to dare to talk with me like that. Do you believe me if I say I can suck away your soul and torture you for eternity?"

Eva scoffed disdainfully, "If you're so capable, you won't be stuck here and asking me to be your disciple. If I'm not wrong, you are within that strange staircase, right? Furthermore, with your tone, it's quite clear you can only bring someone here once they reach the 99th step.

"All spirit treasures have their unique rules and trials to accept a worthy master, and you are the same. A spirit treasure is nothing without a master. You can kill me, but then you will remain stuck here until another person appears that can reach this place.

"So, cut the crap and accept me as your master, or you can try keeping me here. Although I may not be as powerful as you, I still have a trick or two to escape from here. And trust me, I will come back, and next time, I won't be this amiable!" She coldly threatened.

In this life, she doesn't want to be bound by another or become someone else puppet; she has already had enough of that. She was finally free and would not be trapped by anything.

If it was in the past, she might've accepted the Heavenly Devil Soul Flag's offer, but now, she didn't put anyone in her eyes, and no amount of power was enough for her to separate from Ace or bring him any harm.

"Hah, I've heard the Shadow Abyssal Devils were all lunatics and don't fear anything, and that's why they were hunted until nothing was left of them. But now I truly believed it.

"But what I'm curious about is how a seedling of Imperial Shadow Abyssal Devil Bloodline appeared again?" The Heavenly Devil Soul Flag didn't seem to be bothered by Eva's threat. In fact, it seemed very curious about Eva's origin.

Eva was surprised by how easily Heavenly Devil Soul Flag saw through her origin.

"You'll naturally know once you accept me as your master. Now let's not waste each other time, sent me out if you're not interested." Eva coldly stated.

"Interesting, very interesting. Your origin is worthy of being my master, and you are also hated by the Abyss, just like my previous master. Very well, if you promise me one thing, I'm willing to form a life bond with you." Heavenly Devil Soul Flag inquired.

"Tell me," Eva asked as she didn't directly agree. If it were something too bothersome or could bring harm to her loved one, she would reject it without hesitation.

"It's very simple, actually; I want you to kill anything remotely related to Abyss. Don't think that I'm asking you to put your life at risk because as you grow stronger, they will know about your existence, and once that happens, they will do anything to make sure you die before you can threaten their order.

"It would take a very long time before you could pose a threat to them, and they will not give you any chance to grow, so you need my power to grow quickly, and I can also hide you from them." Heavenly Devil Soul Flag revealed with a hint of animosity in its voice.

Eva's expression grew grave as she asked, "Who are 'them'?"

"You'll naturally know once you reach that point. For now, you should be worried about keeping your head down and making sure no one would find you." Heavenly Devil Soul Flag gravely replied.

"Alright, I'll agree. As long as it could threaten my love, I will do anything!" Eva replied with killing intent.

"Love, huh? You're just like…" The Heavenly Devil Soul Flag sounded somewhat melancholy and nostalgic, "Let's seal the deal. I don't want to wait any longer, and you have already passed my first trial; we'll form the Life Bond: Master for One-

Life!

"If you complete all of my requirements in the future, only then you could have full authority over me!"