Eternal Thief

White Fire wore a solemn expression on his face as he announced, “The ruler of Mighty Blade Province, and the strongest blade cultivator under the golden sky, His Majesty, the Mighty Blade Demon King, has arrived. Kneel before your King!”

All the knights, including White Fire, fell on their right knees with a thunderous sound.

The youths were also greatly alarmed, and they stood up from their seats and do as the knights did. This was the courtesy any Demon King deserved, especially the Blade Demon King, who was the third most powerful demon king of eight provinces!

At the very front row, Feng included the other top ten does the same.

Thereupon, powerful footsteps sounded from the door and an imposing sensation creep up everyone’s heart.

The Blade Demon wore golden king robes while a golden crown, which looked like it was made of small swords, was resting on his head. He had a mild smile on his face as he was slowly toward the platform.

Jerome and Maddux were following right behind the Blade Demon King with their head lower, in awe.

The Blade Demon King took the stage as his sharp eyes flashed past the entire ten thousand youths kneeling before him.

Ace’s heart palpitated all of a sudden when he felt an imposing martial sense fall on him for a moment, and he also noticed one more startling thing, ‘This soul signature, it from that day!’

Ace quickly remembered the strange encounter he had before he entered the shadow mountain range that day. He simply thought he imagined that the soul signature vanished suddenly.

But now that Blade Demon King released his martial sense for a few moments, he again felt that powerful soul signature, and it seemed it was the Blade Demon King himself that day.

‘So, this is the power of a manifestation realm expert? Too terrifying!’ Ace mused with a slightly grim expression because he could tell the soul realm experts were like ants in front of these manifestation realm experts.

Blade Demon King’s eyes stayed on Feng for a fleeting moment as a peculiar glint flashed past his eyes before he spoke in his thunderous voice, “Rise!”

Everyone quickly stood up as they looked at the towering Demon King with reverence and awe in their eyes.

Blade Demon King solemnly spoke, “First, I want to say, congratulation on making up to this point after confronting the unprecedented situation in the first phase!”

No one can make a sound, but most of their eyes were filled with pride and ecstasy to get the Demon King’s praise.

Blade Demon King continued, “But don’t celebrate too soon. It was only the first phase, but millions of lives were lost, and I don’t know how much more will sacrifice.

“However, we demons live for battle and died in battle. We never cower in front of a challenge like our ancestors and never showed our back to our enemies. I want to forge you all into true battle demons who know how to fight and crush their enemies in any kind of situation.

“That’s why in the second phase, you all follow one of the blade knight commanders here and complete a life and death mission within five months. These blade knight commanders will only instruct you, but not save you if you were to face death!”

The pavilion’s atmosphere turned gloomy after hearing about the second phase.

Blade Demon King remained nonchalant and continued, “You all have access to the reward lists, so use them wisely to increase your battle sense. Don’t waste those reward points wantonly, or you might regret it.

“After this banquet, you’ll all receive envelopes with the name of your instructor knight commander, and you’ll be directly reporting to them.”

Then his eyes fell on the very front, where the top hundred participants were calmly listening.

Blade Demon King said, “You all took the top hundred spots and must be very proud of yourselves, and you should be because you are the most talented hundred demons of my domain.

“That’s why rank 100 to 11 will get extra 5,000 Reward Points and access to the special reward list. While rank 4 to 10 will get 10,000 Reward Points and a special reward list for them.”

Then his eyes landed on three youths at the very front: Feng, Thomas, and Peter. He smiled coldly, which made the three shrug, especially Peter, who knows his father the best. This smile spells a certain disaster!

He said, “The ranks 2 and 3 will be given 15,000 Reward Points and a reward list for only two of you. As for Rank 1, who is the most promising youth of the domain’s current generation, he’ll get 20,000 Reward Points and the reward list with most precious items.”

Everyone exclaimed and looked at the top hundred participants, especially Feng, who had a special reward list for his own and no one can get anything from it.

However, Blade Demon King’s next words sent the top hundred from the sky to the pit, “I know you lot are happy because you get many benefits and consider yourself special, but this also means you have to perform a special task as well.

“You’ll all get ten times stronger missions from others here and the top ten will have to complete two missions, while the top three will also have to complete a special and most difficult assignment from the others.

“As their ranking, it’s not permanent. They’re all yours to take. Since they’re getting arduous tasks, it doesn’t mean they have the right to keep their prominent positions. They had already got the corresponding rewards and benefits for their aforementioned performance.

“As long as anyone can perform better than any of them, even the number 1 position is open for any to snatch, and so does your top ten thousand!”

The top hundred participants’ expressions were somewhat ugly now because this will massively pressure them to keep their position, while those lower than the top hundred looked at everyone in the front with burning gazes as if they were their prey. Especially the bronze skin demon at the very front!

But this didn’t mean their positions were safe as well, since those who aren’t present here have gotten easier tasks than them, just like the top hundred.

That’s made this competition even fiercer.

Blade Demon King ended his speech while saying, “I’m hoping that the next time we meet, there won’t be many unfamiliar faces here. Good luck and enjoy the banquet!”

Thomas sighed and lamented, “Brother Feng, it seemed we’re screwed!”

Feng chuckled, “Talk about yourself. But it seemed we’re going to team up for this task.”

Peter grimly chimed in, “I agreed. My royal father can do something like this, but I’m afraid it won’t be pretty for any of us.”

At this moment, Jerome approached them with an elderly smile on his face.

He said while scanning through the top ten, “Everyone from the top ten, please follow me.”

Ace’s eyes narrowed when he sensed this audience might not be over yet.

They all didn’t dare to neglect Jerome because he came with the Demon King, so they quickly followed behind him and left the white pavilion in everyone’s envious gazes, and enter another spacious hall a few meters away from the white pavilions.

They were all startled when they saw Demon King was present and sat at a large table filled with different kinds of luscious dishes and drinks.

Knight commanders were also present on the right side of this long table.

Blade Demon King coolly said, “Take a seat everyone, no need to stand on ceremony. This is special meat prepared for the top ten.”

Everyone snapped out of their stupor and bowed before they took their seats.

The meal was extremely scrumptious. Even Ace felt he should kidnap the castle’s chef and have him as a personal chef, while the wine was also very appealing.

After the meal was over, they thought they would be excused, but to their surprise, Blade Demon King had another surprise in store for them.

He said with a smile, “I’m sure you all like your meal. Now I would allocate you your task for phase two.”

Everyone stiffed hearing this, and they couldn’t help but look at Blade Demon King with appalling expressions. It was just like letting the lamb eat before slaughtering it.

He completely ignored their expression and coolly stated, “Jerome, give it to them.”

Jerome bowed slightly before he distributed gold envelopes from rank tenth to rank fourth.

Blade Demon King said, “I advise you all to open it alone, now you may leave.”

Now only the top three, Maddux, Jerome, and knights, remained in this hall.

Blade Demon King looked at Feng and said with a smile, “Brat, we finally met.”

Ace felt like he was stared at by a tiger, and he didn’t dare to show any kind of mistake in his behavior, he respectfully stood up and performed a royal salute, “It’s my honor to meet with, his majesty, the Might Blade Demon King!”