Eternal Thief

The short boy was dumbfoundedly looking at the screaming young man whose hand was cut off from his wrist. He didn’t know just what happened, but someone had just saved his life. 

“Bastard I’ll kill!” The young man’s face was twisted with hatred as he shrilled.

“Heh, just you?” The same indifferent voice sounded again. 

“I…” Before he could curse again his eyes abruptly lose their luster, and he landed on the dirt becoming a corpse. 

The short boy’s face flashed with terror as he looked at the corpse, he didn’t even see how this guy die. 

“I…t-thank…you!” He stuttered, he didn’t know if this was a friend or foe, but he knew if this person wanted him dead, he can do it a hundred times over. 

Ace looked at the terror-sicken youth from a tree ten meters away with a faint smile and said coolly, “Get out of here, this place is going to become chaotic, very soon. Oh, and please spread the news the Sky Stealer is…here!” 

Finish saying, he left the flabbergasted youth there.

“S…S-sky…St-Stealer?!” The short boy’s heart was beating so fast it was on the verge of exploding when he heard the identity of his savior.

He kept standing there for a while in a daze before he finally collected himself. An ecstatic smile appeared as he mumbled, “I was saved by the Sky Stealer!” 

After mumbling for some time, he quickly remembered what Sky Stealer told him, and with no hesitation, he left the trail ground to spread the news. 

He didn’t know why this Thief wanted to everyone know he was here, but something huge was going to happen in Earthen Mist Forest very soon! 

—

Ace was moving between trees like a phantom. He was going after anyone who came in the range of his soul sense. He was sensing many soul signatures and all of them had a protector with them. 

‘I hope they would give me at least a low-level thievery.’ Ace mused with a hopeful smile. 

Now that he had already shown his presence and told someone to announce his whereabouts, he had little time to play around before all those powerful beings come running here. 

He stopped fifty meters away from his new targets, there was a ground of 12 youths with 4 peak stage Qi foundation realm protectors. 

Abruptly, fourteen soul treads rush toward all those targets and a few moments later they vanished and the system’s emotionless voice sounded, 

========

[Quick Report of Thieveries] 

[Successful Pick Pocket Count: 16]

[Low-Level Thieveries: 1]

[Total Rewards: 13,100TP]   

—

[Thief Point(s): 166,000]

—

[Low-level Thievery: 37]

=======

Ace looked with some disappointment after only scoring one low-level thievery after robbing those previous two dead guys and these fourteen. 

‘Next.’ He quickly closed the notification panel and move on toward the next targets. 

—

Just like that, a full day and night pass.

This was supposed to be a test between fifty thousand youngsters, and it was also supposed to be a ruthless one. 

However, at this moment, the forest was filled with curses and swearing. Almost everywhere, one could see a large group of youngsters and black-clad people moving together. 

The people within these groups look very united, and their eyes were bloodshot for some reason. One could hear someone cuss with a voice full of resentment and fury. 

“Bastard Thief, come out if you have guts, this father will teach you thievery is a crime!” An enraged burly youngster loudly exclaimed. 

“Get back in line you muscle brain, you didn’t even get this ugly owl tattoo like me. I’ll fucking carve that bird on that basted ass with my lance!” another enraged guy roar as he showed an owl tattoo on his ring finger. 

Just like this, many enrage voices sounded as some people showed the owl tattoo with deep resentment. No matter what they do, they can’t seem to get rid of it. This was truly despicable.

Everyone knows just who this thief was since only he can imprint these strange owl symbols with no one finding out. They all knew they weren’t a match for him, but the losses of their treasures were enough to let all of them unite and hunt him down. 

They simply thought since the Sky Stealer didn’t show himself it means he didn’t have fighting power and this gave them even more incentive.

Even those protectors were no longer hidden as they were also madly searching for that thief. They never imagine that the infamous Sky Stealer would come to the institute’s test destination so boldly and even dare to rob from the number one institute of middle-level lands. 

One day and night, that thief had already robbed over 8,000 people and numbers kept rising every moment. 

Everyone was on the verge of insanity because no matter what they do how much they guard or hide the storage rings they always vanished in front of their eyes, and sometimes they would get an owl tattoo as a blessing!

Now everyone knows that the notorious Thief was here and someone from the Shadows ground even reported it to the higher-ups. They wanted to cancel the test and leave before they would also get robbed, since no one seemed to be safe, not even those Qi river cultivators. 

But to everyone’s misery, they got an uncompromising order that they had to keep looking for the thief, or at least keep him here until the help arrived. The person giving the order even told them to let that thief rob them as long as they can keep him in one place. 

Now no one had any choice but to keep all those youths who wanted to leave before their treasures got stolen in the forest. This was giving the Shadow Leader a colossal headache, and he gritted his teeth as he also cursed that damn despicable thief and keep searching. 

However, no matter what they do, that thief always stole everyone’s storage rings without even leaking the slightest bit of Qi. 

Now the final test of Damien Royal Institute has turned into a thief hunting test, but it seemed like they were the ones being hunted by that thief instead.   

—

At this moment, when everyone in the earthen mist forest going crazing because of Ace, a folk of ghost cranes was moving toward the earthen mist forest at high speed.

On the back of these Qi river flying beasts were many terrifying beings, and all of them at least at the peak of the Qi river realm! 

A ghost crane was leading the folk in front, and on its back were Alvin and Lan and a stiff face beast tamer. 

All of their expression was grave as they were all in a hurry to reach the location of that hateful thief as quickly as possible. 

Alvin and Lan never expected that the hateful thief would show his face so soon. They both guess he would appear somewhere else since he was already done with the Leap Kingdom, and they were just in the process of forming a flawless plan to corner him. 

As soon as they got the information that he was robbing many people in the earthen mist forest, they quickly assemble their forces and head there. This time they were bringing most of the powerful beings of middle-level lands with them!

Also, this wasn’t the last of it because they deliberately spread the news of this and they both know more people will come, and they were especially expecting Nightmare Ghosts. 

Truth to be told, after what happened with John they were dreadful of that thief but also very greedy to get his secrets. 

They didn’t even tell about John’s sudden death to anyone because they knew all these people would never dare to take part in this hunting if they knew a Qi River Core cultivator die. 

They were even keeping it from Beast Calling and just make the same excuse they made before that John was chasing after the thief alone. Likewise, they simply thought to tell everyone after this hunt and only if that thief was powerful, and they can’t handle him alone! 

They concluded that the thief probably can’t use this ‘trick’ all the time, or with this kind of prowess, he didn’t need thievery at all! 

But for the sake of safety, they both were going to let those others become their cannon folds, especially those damn ghosts, and let them test the waters for them. If they sense anything amiss, they will quickly escape! 

—

A few thousand miles away from the Pill Flame and Beast Calling group, 

A group of black-clad people was moving toward the earthen mist forest with speed even faster than the ghost cranes. 

In the very front of this group were three black-clocked figures and a handsome young man in red robes, following behind him were two extremely beautiful women. 

“Black Reaper, how much longer before we reached this Earthen Mist Forest. I don’t want to lose this chance to capture that petty thief.” The young man coolly asked the black-clocked man a few meters away from him.

“Crown Prince Marc, don’t worry, even if he escaped, he’ll come in our way. That damn forest is not a place where anyone could enter.” A respectful yet confident voice sounded underneath that cloak!