Eternal Thief

Soon after the Heavenly Punishment clouds dispersed and the heavenly pressure vanished, Freya and Noa approached with ashen expressions.

They could still feel the blood-curdling aura lingering as they got closer to a giant charred crater which was supposed to be the mountain where Ace had spent over six months.

“Do you think he’s alive?” Freya mumbled grimly as she looked at the smoke from the charred crater.

She was even trembling from the lingering aura of heavenly thunder; this fearful feeling came from the core of her very being.

‘What kind of trial is this? If this came from the Goddess, do we have to go through it as well?’ Just thinking about it frightened Freya, and she even started to doubt whether the Thief House was still safe or not.

If before she was happy about this fact of gaining the thief house member spot, now she was forced to reconcile and think with a somber mind. After all, everything had a price.

Noa coldly berated as she suppressed the strange fear in her heart, “Do you think we’ll be alive if he’s dead? Don’t you remember the house rules? Almost every rule has Leader’s name in it, and if he dies, I don’t think we can stay alive as well.”

She didn’t care about her life as much as she cared about Ace’s, and even if she also had to suffer such a ‘trial’ in the future, she would take it without any hesitation.

“Master is fine. I can feel it.” Cyrus’s childish voice rang with happiness.

At this moment, the little guy suddenly jumped off Freya’s shoulder and directly ran toward the crater. He was even faster than the two women.

Both women sighed in relief as they increased their speed and quickly followed the small chick.

When they finally reached the giant creator, they were shocked when they saw just how deep it was. It was almost a mile deep, and right in the center of this creator lay a charred body.

“Master!” Cyrus quickly hurried over while the two women followed with gloomy expressions.

Ace lay there completely exhausted and barely keeping his consciousness, but he grinned on his charred face was quite apparent and even seemed ghastly.

When he heard Cyrus’s voice, his eyes trembled, and with difficulty, he looked over and saw blurry figures approaching.

‘It was the right thing to let them out….’ He thought weakly, but he didn’t fall unconscious because the orb essence was still getting absorbed and seeping within him.

He knew the breakthrough was about to begin. Furthermore, he transmitted his thought to Cyrus at this moment, “T-take me… away.”

Cyrus cheerfully jumped beside Ace as he could feel Ace’s power spiking and his power with him as well, and his life wasn’t in danger.

So, he quickly said, “Master said take him away. Let’s go. Why are you dillydallying!”

“Shouldn’t we treat him first?” Freya frowned darkly.

“No, Master is completely fine. There is no need. Quickly pick him this place stink!” Cyrus disdainfully retorted as he looked around with its tiny scornful eyes.

Noa hesitated and then moved toward Ace. As she looked at his smiling charred face and starry eyes, she felt some relief and gently used her Qi to envelop his body within.

Cyrus then jumped over Freya’s shoulder and said, “Alright, let’s go. If someone tried to block us, I’ll just burn them, don’t worry.” He said confidently.

Ace felt relief when he felt they start moving, and at this moment, the system’s voice rang, which he was waiting for.

=====

[Congratulation, Host, for successfully crossing the third form of Heavenly Punishment!]

—

[Martial and Soul breakthrough process has been started!]

=====

Unlike before, Ace felt his Martial Space and True Soul stir.

At this moment, two vortexes formed over Ace’s glabella and one over his solar plexus, and both soul Qi and martial Qi around the surroundings stirred and started to suck within those vortexes.

Freya and Noa instantly noticed the changes in Qi density around them, and they were startled when they saw the focal point of these Qis was Ace, who was enshrouded within Noa’s Qi.

The strange thing was Noa’s Qi wasn’t affected at all, and only the unprocessed Qi in the atmosphere was getting sucked inside, completely bypassing Noa’s soul Qi.

“Now what?” Freya frowned as she felt the soul Qi becoming denser and denser.

“Master is breaking through, don’t worry.” Cyrus coolly revealed.

“Breakthrough in this condition?” This naturally came as a shock to both women.

Cyrus proudly said, “Of course, just keep moving and enjoy the fresh Qi.”

Freya and Noa had too many questions, but they knew it wasn’t the time or place to ask them, so they continued to move.

However, the three were forced to stop after three hours when the surrounding Qi turned into cloudy mist, and they could even feel the martial Qi at this moment.

“Just what kind of breakthrough is it?” Freya was completely baffled as all her understanding of the cultivation was shattered by Ace.

Noa thought of a possibility but didn’t reveal it and said, “We’re already quite far away. We should stop and let Leader breakthrough peacefully.”

“No, continue to move. I’ll navigate. Master said no matter what, we can’t stop until we’re 3 or 4 days away from that place.” Cyrus stated.

They had no choice but to continue moving while dragging a Qi cloud. The only relief was all the predators were scared into hiding by the heavenly punishment, or they would be attacked by all kinds of beasts while carrying such a dense Qi around them.

After two days, the Qi cloud finally stopped, which astonished them.

Ace, on the other hand, has long forgotten about the outside as his entire being completely fell into a wonderful warm state.

At this moment, Ace’s martial space and true soul were filled with dense heavenly Qi.

The martial space was filled with dark Qi sea and black heavenly darkness Qi. At this moment, the misty heavenly Qi suddenly started to condense below the dark void.

Soon, all the mist condensed into a pitch-black round core, and suddenly dark blue chain emerged from the dark void shooting down at the condensed core.

The dark blue chain suddenly started to shimmer in a dark blue hue before the Qi sea raged.

Tiny dark blue symbols started to emerge over the dark core as they slowly faded and the next moment, a small dark blue ring formed at the top of the dark core.

The blue chain trembled before it retracted into the dark void, and at this moment, the pitch-black water of the Qi sea suddenly started to revolve, forming a small vortex right below the dark core.

At this moment, the dark core with one dark blue circle started to hover down and stopped when it was in the middle of this vortex and started revolving with the entire Qi sea.

Inside Ace’s true soul, all the Heavenly Soul Qi was getting absorbed by the orange soul core, and as it got absorbed, the orange color started to get changed into a deeper color.

When all the heavenly Soul Qi was absorbed, the Soul Core had fiery red color as it glowed like a raging sun, illuminating the entire true soul in red.

The Soul Qi also turned fiery red at this moment as some of it got absorbed by the Eternal Thief Fate Compass and the treasure aura became more ethereal.

“Beautiful.” Moira’s joyous voice rang within the true soul while the short sword soul core remained dormant.

Furthermore, Ace’s soul sense suddenly started to grow, 600 Meters… 700 meters… 900-meter, and it finally stopped at a 1-mile radius.

But this wasn’t over yet purple soul core suddenly started to form around the red soul core, just like the white and green soul cores revolving around the soul core.

Ace’s entire body suddenly started to shimmer in a dark sheen as the charred skin started to shed, revealing his pale white pristine skin.

His silky black hair started to grow again while his body also experienced a sublet change as it became more masculine, and he looked even more handsome as his natural charm deepened with his strength.

System’s voice rang in his mind,

=====

[Congratulation, Host, on successfully creating the Dark Qi Sea Core]

[Host has reached Stage-1 of Heavenly Dark Sea Core Realm!]

[Innate Martial Ability: Fortune Sense has been awakened.]

[Reward: 5,000,000 Thief Point]

—

[Congratulation, Host, on successfully creating the Red Wind Soul Core]

[Host has reached Stage-1 of Heavenly Red Wind Soul Core!]

[Innate Soul Ability: Thief’s Mark has been awakened.]

[Reward (1): 5,000,000 Thief Point]

[Reward (2): Apparition Wind Walk (Soul Art)]

—

[Nature’s Lightning Elemental Orb absorption has been completed!]

[Special Reward: Lightning Qi [Martial & Soul]]

-Host can switch between Worldly Element(s):

1. Light [Soul & Martial]

2. Earth [Soul & Martial]

3. Lightning [Soul & Martial]

[Warning: Worldly Elements’ and ‘Heavenly Elements’ cannot be used together]]

—

[Host status has been updated!]

=====

Ace’s eyes snapped open at this moment!