Eternal Thief

The shade of night descent on the imperial domain, and except for the incident with the First Demon Prince, everything was as per usual.

In the Demonic Seal Castle, the puppet servants were returned to their quarters after their routine work.

However, tonight was destined to be anything but peaceful for NO.8,430, who was looking at the dark cloud-filled gloomy sky as the cold winds of winter were making the air chilly.

'No moonlight, huh?' Ace's lips curled slightly as his dark blue eyes were gleaming thievishly, 'It seemed even mother nature is helping me….'

Chuckling at his own humor, he shook his head before leaving the window and turning off the light in the room.

At this moment, NO.8,430 clothes suddenly started to change as the inky black color spread, and the size also began to change.

The short and loose robes soon turned into a tight long black top and bottom with a mysterious dark blue pattern before completely vanishing within the fabric. An imposing owl symbol gleam in dark blue color on the back as a long hood rest upon it.

NO.8,430 stature also started to change as from 2.6 meters, he turned 6.4 feet tall, and his burly physic also altered into a slimmer and toned body.

The black and white mask on his face returned to Thousand-Face Mask, revealing dark blue eyes like the starry sky at night.

Ace then donned the long hood overhead, which he hadn't for quite a while.

'Feeling myself again.' Ace smiled behind the hood before his eyes turned stern, 'Let's start this show!'

He turned in the direction where the inner emperor's palace and Space Step Heavenly Talisman appeared in his hand. The moment he activated it, the space trembled, and he vanished from the room!

This marked the start of this foray, and there was no going back. He'll either pull this off and escape or fail and suffer the persuasion of all the mad demons!

A 1000-meters away from the servant quarters in the inner palace direction was a long alleyway that was completely tranquil. But at this moment, space rippled before Ace's hooded figure appeared!

Ace felt slight pain in his head as his vision was blurry, 'I'm still not used to this teleportation.'

He long expected this aftermath of using the heavenly talisman from his previous experiment, so he quickly circulated his Qi to recover and activated his stealth, vanishing from plain sight.

Ace looked around and smiled in satisfaction, 'Just as I measured, I appeared in the right place, and even if someone were watching the servant quarters, they wouldn't be able to find NO.8,430 disappearance unless they go inside his room or could sense space undulations.'

He had planned and calculated for over nine months, and as long as he didn't miss something, he was 80% confident in pulling this entire foray off.

Ace then turned toward the direction of the inner palace walls, which was a little over 2 miles away from the pathway, and used his lightning steps to move.

As he passed street after street, he kept looking at the active Live Fate Map. Although it was quite Qi-consuming, he knew Live Fate Map was his biggest assurance to avoid danger.

Just as he was over a mile away from the inner palace walls, he saw crimson fate point two streets away, so he instantly took another route.

But he had just gone two hundred meters in this alter route when he saw four crimson fate points on end.

'How could it be this easy?' Ace smiled wryly, 'Since both routes are blocked, and I don't want to risk passing these watch points, I have to use another space step.'

Ace had long prepared for these watch points in the way of the inner palace, and according to Ronan, there were grade-7 formations activated in those points all the time, and they were the biggest hurdle before the inner palace walls.

So, Ace didn't hesitate, so he used another heavenly talisman after adjusting his position.

One thousand meters away was a grass field without any walls, and there was only a single road that went toward the closed gates of the inner palace, and the five-hundred-meter-tall wall surrounded the inner palace.

Ace appeared on this glass field, but his expression changed because this entire field appeared black on the fate map. It was a black fate location!

Without even wasting a moment, he used another heavenly talisman and vanished in the direction of the inner palace.

The moment Ace vanished, a dark light suddenly shone on his standing spot for a fleeting moment before the glass field returned to its tranquil state.

However, a blurry figure soon appeared on that spot as he mumbled with uncertainty, "Why did the soul fraction formation catch someone standing on it for an instant? Or was it just a false alarm? I better scan the area."

The entire glass field around the walls and even the road was under the monitoring of a giant grade-7 Soul Fraction Formation which could detect anyone below mid-level Law Awareness Realm Cultivator or any concealment treasures below intermediate-grade-7.

The formation was kept active in this area unless someone was summoned or left the inner palace. Even the outer wall was within the detection of this formation!

If it had been a moment later, this formation would've given Ace a ghastly Soul Shock, which would be the end of his foray!

On the other side of the inner place wall was an herb field to keep the air refreshed, and there wasn't any grade-7 formation active since there wasn't any need to.

Because even at this time of the hour, puppet servants were active, and they all at least belonged to middle ranking and worked on these herb fields, not to mention the powerful imperial knights' patrols and high-ranking puppet servants inside the palace.

At this moment, just a few hundred meters away from the inner palace wall, Ace's figure appeared in the middle of an herb field.

His eyes were affixed on the fate map, and when he saw the area was only red, not black anymore, he had a sigh of relief.

'That was close!' His eyes shone with fear since he wasn't told there was such a formation in that grass field, 'Could it be they even keep the secret about that formation from the princes? Quite possible.' He guessed.

But he didn't have time to mull over it since he was already inside the inner palace, and this place was completely different.

Although it was night, the entire place was lit with lights like day, and he saw a magnificent structure in pristine white marble and filled with beautiful artistry half a mile away from where he stood.

'The Inner Emperor Palace!' Ace's eyes shone with a hint of excitement, and he had to admit this palace was quite huge now that he was close to it.

There were pillars and small structures on both sides of a marble road, and Ace was currently standing within such structure.

Ace knew now he had to be extremely careful and couldn't just randomly teleport, or he might appear in front of some terrifying hidden existence. He only had a general outline of the inner palace, not the core area.

Furthermore, Ace didn't want to go into the core areas, and he just needed to get in range of 10 miles of the demon temple to activate his random pick-pocket talisman.

So, he just has to enter the inner palace hallway, which is the boundary between the core of the palace, and he'll be able to activate the heavenly talisman.

But looking at the brightly lit road and the red fate map, Ace knew it was dead wrong to go inside without arousing any attention.

'One last time!' Ace inhaled sharply before he activated another heavenly talisman, as well as he activated a concealment talisman of grade-5. He only had two more such talismans that he theft from the auction.

They can only last for a little over 2 minutes, so he has to use them carefully.

The next moment, Ace appeared right in the middle of a spacious, beautiful hallway, and when he saw the fate map still crimson, he didn't dare to be careless.

Although he couldn't see where he was in this close hallway, he was pretty much inside the inner palace's outer area.

But he didn't dare to continue randomly anymore and hid behind a thick white pillar. He will be going to wait for someone to pass here for half an hour to steal their memories, and if in this half-hour no one appeared, he would move on to search for his prey.

Furthermore, using so many skills and the fate map put a strain on him, so he needed to rest, and this place was perfect for recuperating.

"System, if I still didn't get the lightning orb, humph!" Ace threw a threatening transmission in his mind to the system, but as usual, he was ignored.

Just ten minutes after Ace hid in the hallway, footsteps rang…!