Eternal Thief

Noa's eyes were filled with disbelief when she heard how her leader had caused such a storm when he was just out for a 'stroll' and couldn't help but feel small when she thought she couldn't even score fifty thieveries in months. 

She finally understood just how powerful Ace's theft abilities were, and she couldn't even compare to him. She even got many insights on the path of a thief from Ace's experience. 

Just for this specific reason, Ace told Noa about his method of thievery and his experience. He wanted her to understand that cutting hands wasn't the only way to steal, and it can be done in a far low-key manner. 

Noa's eyes shimmered with adoration, and admiration as she looked at Ace. She didn't doubt his words even for a moment because of her complete trust in him. 

"Leader, I understand that because of you, that bastard Livy got the chance to get rid of Iron Demon Tribe, but I can't understand why you left your name behind?" She didn't understand this point, since in her view thievery was all about being stealthy. 

So, when Ace told everything, even his Thief Title, Sky Stealer, she didn't understand just why would he reveal himself and admit he was the thief. As far as she could tell, she didn't think Ace was the person who crave fame and reputation.

Ace somewhat understood her thought and could only reply bitterly, "Heh, you think I wanted to reveal myself and my abilities in public? Trust me, I don't have a choice in this matter because the 'Goddess' wanted me to spread my name far and wide. 

"Didn't I tell you the Dark Owl is like my own thief symbol, granted by the goddess herself? As long as I stole a specific amount of treasures, that thief symbol with appeared on victim or treasuries and I can't be removed, not until that victim dies or the entire place that is connected to the treasury was destroyed!" 

Ace patiently explain about this thief symbol, he didn't want Noa to lose her focus when she first experienced it herself in the future, it could be deadly if they were in a dangerous situation. 

Noa was simply flabbergasted hearing about this magical thief symbol that was granted by the goddess herself and after finding out her leader had such a task to spread his 'fame' out there for the Goddess, she couldn't help but revere him even more. 

"U-Um… leader, c-can I…" 

Before Noa could ask further, Ace cut her short and shook his head, "I don't know if you will get a thief symbol or not, but the chances of it's extremely low." 

Ace quickly rain down on Noa's parade but didn't tell her the entire truth about Thief Panel, since she didn't have to know. 

"Oh." Noa felt it was a pity since she also wanted to help the 'goddess' to spread her fame as well in the future.

'It seemed the leader had far more responsibilities than I thought. I should quickly become strong and help him!' Noa thought resolutely. 

"Now, tell me about this Left Ocean Spear and his abilities. Truth be told, I wanted to steal both tribes' every high-level demon's storage rings and their resources of wars right under this Left Ocean Spear nose. 

"It will be a tremendous blow to Ocean Demon Dukedom's reputation, and Livy will also feel the pinch. We'll also collect some debts. But I'm not sure if I can pull this off because when I was close to the city wall last night, I felt a very strong formation surrounding the boundary of the entire Iron Demon City. 

"From my point of view this formation was likely something laid by this Left Ocean Spear to entrap the Iron Demon Tribe's members from escaping, or he might want to entrap me of all people, who knows, but we can't throw this possibility out as well!

"Although I'm confident in crossing that formation while remaining in stealth, I don't think you can escape from its detection for obvious reason. That's why if I can just find the source of this formation, I can get rid of it, and then we'll be like fish in water!" 

Ace truthfully told her about his plan to cause an upheaval, but he needed more information, and he had to do it carefully or there would be a soul realm cultivator on his tail! 

Noa seriously mulled over all this information provided by Ace. She couldn't help but admire him for his information scouting abilities. Even she couldn't do it better than him, even when she was in her prime.   

"Left Ocean Spear, Henrik, had a strange character. He's like a snake who hides in the dark and hunts his targets. He's also very shrewd and ruthless. Livy only sent him out when he wanted to capture someone or when he needed to get rid of a threat silently. 

"Since that bastard, Livy, sent Henrik this time, I think he wanted to capture you, leader, and recruit you under him or even wanted your secrets. As for this formation, I think I know what kind of formation it is!" Noa quickly voiced her opinion. 

Ace attentively listen and felt it was right for him to wait on Noa before making any move.

"What kind of formation?" asked Ace intently. 

"Demon Eye Formation, a low-grade-2 formation, one of three legacy formations of Ocean Demon Tribe. It can monitor a city like Iron Demon City completely while also scanning through the city for hidden traps and see-through disguises of peak Qi golden river core cultivators!" Noa's voice was grave. 

If her assessment was true, then Ace was right. She can't go out, or she'll instantly be detected by Demon Eye Formation and her cover will also blow. 

Ace felt relief, hearing this formation could only see through a disguise of a golden river core stage cultivator. 

"Don't worry, it's completely useless against me, so tell me about its source and I will get rid of it tonight." Ace confidently declared. 

"I don't know about runes much and only read this formation in Warden Cane's diary. He writes Demon Eye Formation has eighteen source points, and they can be set up under the ground or hidden in trees or anything, as long as it won't affect their functions. 

"If the leader can get rid of five source points of this formation, I think it'll stop working. But it's too dangerous since Henrik will instantly know that someone is fiddling with demon eye formation the moment the leader touched the formation source."

Noa's voice was depressed. Although she also wanted to take advantage of this war challenge like Ace and collect house points while honing her thief skills, she also didn't want to put Ace in danger. 

She knew Henrik wasn't someone easily trick, and this was the demon eye formation, a legacy formation of Ocean Demon Tribe, so, he naturally was more careful with it.

"Heh, who said I'm going to touch those formation sources?" Ace smiled mysteriously before saying, "I'm going to blow them up!" 

---

Last night before Noble Tribe Title War, 

The Iron Demon Tribe was almost done with their preparations and all those Qi river core cultivators were making their last check. 

At this moment, 

A person in a dark hood with an owl imprint on its back just stepped onto the ground after descending from the city wall!

This was Ace, who had come here to render this Demon Eye formation useless! 

With his stealthy soul sense, he quickly found a formation source two hundred meters away from the city wall!

Ace carefully goes toward it while using his soul-shattering eyes just to remain careful of any hidden traps. 

He quickly reached a lush tree and sneered when he saw many hidden traps around it. There were even nine-star array traps, but for him, it doesn't matter since he wasn't here to steal anything. 

A dark pentagon coin appeared in his hand, which was clearly a talisman from the system. 

"System set a timer of ten hours for this Fire Explosion Talisman and seventeen others which I made you create!" 

Ace smiled coldly when he thought about the magnificent display of all these tier-3 fire explosion talismans simultaneously triggering at once and blowing all formation sources! 

Ace was quite glad that the talismans made by the system had this last 'Timer' feature, which can help him trigger these talismans at a specific time, even when he was far away from it.

But he can only set this timer between twelve hours, which was still enough for him to escape far away! Furthermore, once the timer function was activated, it can't be stopped like heavenly talismans.

Nonetheless, he was confident in destroying all those eighteen formation sources with no danger whatsoever!

Ace carefully place this already active talisman coin as close as the formation soured, which was just a low-grade-2 formation plate deeply hidden in his tree bark. 

If he tried to touch this tree bark, he'll instantly trigger a trap, that's why he didn't place the talisman coin on the tree as well. But the formation plate was delicate, and so does the tree. 

This tire-3 fire explosion talisman was more than enough to blow both of them into smithereens!