Eternal Thief

Night pass; was a sunny morning and a normal day for inner region residents but Ace was the start of his new journey.

Ace eats his breakfast provided by the Inn and starts his exploration of the inner region. He received a map of the inner region from that reception lady.

After studying the map for while Ace decided to go towards the main market of river flower city’s inner region. The inner region didn’t have separate markets for pills and weapons and this is the only market in the entire inner region.

The inner-city was divided into many territories by different noble families, most of the inner region was under these families’ control. That’s why it only has a single market that was controlled by all the noble families together. Any family that owns property in the inner region or inner-city is called a noble family.

Ace was going there to sell these half-white grade pills.

The Main Market of the Inner Region was bursting with activities. Many merchants come here from outside of the city to sell their goods and buy River-Flower City specialties. It was after all a two-star city.

Inside the central part of the main market, this place is the busiest area of the entire market. There was a big fifteen-story tall building here and it was quite a famous one at that. Its name was ’Kelby Pills & Weapons’ shop. It was famous because this shop was owned by the Kelby family one of the top three noble families of River-Flower City.

Kelby family has a history of 100 years and is also a family of cultivators. That’s why they control a big portion of the inner-city areas and no one dares to mess with them inside the city.

Ace was currently standing in front of the ’Kelby Pills & Weapons’ shop. When he comes to the main market he asked around about shops that deal with the pill business and he finds about the ’Kelby Pills & Weapons’ shop.

It was one of the biggest shops here that bought pills from outside merchants and most importantly they didn’t ask about where the goods came from or any personal information about their customers. That’s why Ace chose this shop to sell off his loot.

When Ace enters the shop, he didn’t even have a chance to look around when a beautiful young lady comes in front of him and speaks with a smile, ”Dear customer what kind of business do you have? Are you selling for buying?”

She didn’t beat around the bust and asked him directly because it was quite crowded in the shop so it seems she was in hurry to deal with others.

”I want to sell my pills.” Ace answer with a grimace when he saw the big crowd here. He didn’t want many people to see his face.

”Dear customer you have come to the right place! Please follow me to the second floor there a master appraisal will appraise your pills’ quality and gives you a fair price for them.” Said the young lady with a smile.

She was working here for many years and can judge someone who there dealing with just by their appearance and demeanor. ’He seems to be from a one-star city a bumpkin. Hmph!’ She scoffs in her heart and added Ace to her list of bumpkins.

If Ace was someone from the inner region or of a higher status, his clothes wouldn’t be this old fashion and made from normal material. Anyone could tell that he was poor or not from a high-end city. And his biggest mistake was he should never tell what kind of goods he was selling right from the start. He should’ve waited to find a quiet place first and then shows his hand.

Well, what can poor Ace do? He wasn’t a shrewd merchant and quite young and inexperienced. He recently became rich and didn’t know how to handle wealth, no matter how careful he was, he was bound to make mistakes.

The second floor of the shop wasn’t crowded as the first floor.

The young lady takes Ace to a small counter desk there was an old man with grey hair sitting behind in a wooden chair comfortably.

”Master Matthew this gentleman wants to sell pills here, can you please appraise them and give a fair price.” Said the lady as she winks at the old man that only he notices and exactly knows what it means was.

However, Ace instantly notice something amiss when she gave her a signal because they can’t hide their disdain from his ’Soul Sense’.

It was the second sense he receives after forming the soul core, ’Soul Sense’. It’s an innate ability and continuously stay active. It helps Ace detects the soul fluctuations of others, with it he can feel changes in other party mood or consciousness and detect enemy with malicious thought ten meters around himself.

’It seems something is not right with these two and this soul sense is quite remarkable!’ Ace thought grimly and was ready if something happens he would escape.

This old man was one of many appraisal apprentices of this shop and everyone called him ’Master’ because of his old age and show some respect to an elder, he wasn’t actually a master appraisal.

When old man Matthew receives the signal he immediately knows that this kid was a bumpkin and he didn’t have to be serious while dealing with him.

”Haha of course I’ll give this little brother a fair price. Little brother show me what kind of pills did you want to sell.” Matthew said while smile like an elder who was talking to his junior.

If Ace didn’t notice hidden disdain in his eyes he would’ve thought this old man was quite a nice person. Now he didn’t buy his honey words but he can’t just leave now and was already here so he chose to show him pills first and see what he does.

”Here are 107 half-white grade pills in this bag you can check and give me a price.” Ace opened the string bag and let the old man sees the pill bottles inside.

Master Matthew becomes speechless because he thought there would only be 2 or 3 pills in this brat’s hand but Ace takes out 107 of them. The young lady was also stunned and take a deep breath of cold air.

Old Matthew became serious after finding out the number of pills. ’I can’t let this deal slid!’ With this kind of deal, he can get a promotion and go to the higher level floor of the shop.

The young lady has also the same thoughts as the old man, ”Dear customer please sit here and I’ll bring ice tea for you.” She said with a spacious smile and hurriedly left to bring ice tea for Ace.

”Yes, you can wait here while enjoying the ice tea it tastes quite good and I will appraise these pills’ quality and give you a fair price. Don’t worry I’ll be fair with the price.” Master Matthew said sincerely this time and commences opening the bottles to appraise the pills inside.

Ace was amused by those two fellows’ 180-degree attitude changes. Since they were being honest this time he wasn’t going to be polite anymore and sit comfortably in a chair and begin to wait for the final result of the appraisal.

After some time that young lady also comes with a classic tea set in a tray between her hands. She serves Ace a cup of ice tea.

Ace smells the unique fragrant that give him a feeling of cold and takes a small sip. A cold yet warm flavor spread in his mound and he couldn’t help but praise out loud, ”Good tea!”

Ace never even drink a normal tea before much less this expensive one, he was being shameless here. But this tea does taste quite refreshing and it even has Qi in it. He was even thinking of buying few kilograms of this tea. He was a foodie after all.

While Ace was enjoying the ice tea, Old man Matthew was appraising the pills one by one.

Suddenly he opens a lid of a red-colored pill bottle and a thick aroma of Qi enters his nostrils. Matthew felt like his Qi was starting to circulate faster inside his body. He quickly closes the lid and scans his surrounding hurriedly, when he saw that no one is paying attention to him, he became a little relaxed.

But Matthew was extremely wrong about this conjecture of his because Ace’s soul sense was locked on him from the very start, and this huge soul wave or change in his mood didn’t go unnoticed from Ace’s soul sense. Only Ace didn’t know what that old man find in that pill bottle so he just stays put and keeps observing him with his soul sense.

Matthew didn’t know that Ace has already noticed the pill because of his exciting consciousness. The old man did his best to controls his breathing and put the red bottle on the side like all of the other pill bottles and pretend as nothing has happened.

Master Matthew looks in the bag and yes he finds another red bottle like the last one. He quickly grabs it and this time he didn’t open its lid completely just a tiny bit.

The same kind of aroma enters his nose. He quickly closed the lid and placed it with another red bottle excitedly. He searches with his eyes if there was another bottle of the same kind but there were only 2 of them so he was a little bit disappointed.

After 15 minutes master Matthew complete his appraisal and called Ace over to finalize the price with him.

”Little brother I have appraisal all of your pills and they are all half-white grade like you said. Hence I’ll give you the same prized as we give our regular customers because you bought this big business for us and that shows your sincerity. There is a total of 107 pills, 52 of them are healing pills price 100 ruby coins for each pill, 30 QI pills price 200 ruby coins each, and 25 minor gate opening pills 500 ruby coins each. With a total of 23,700 ruby coins. This is the fairest price you can get in the whole main market.” Said Master Matthew confidently he really gives him a fair price but there was also deeply hidden slyness in his old eyes.

Ace knew that these pills were worth this much from start but he could feel this old man was hiding something from him and it has to be about those 2 red bottles. He was not that naïve kid that was once swindled by Billy anymore and already learned from his mistakes.

”Make it 23,500 Ruby coins I need these two healing pills for myself therefore I’m not selling them.” Ace grabbed those two red bottles and put them inside his pocket. He didn’t give that sly old man any chance to refuse.