Eternal Thief

Ace stood silently within the underground chamber while the immense power surging through his body had finally stabilized, and the phantom of his Primordial World Embryo behind him slowly faded into nothingness.

For a brief moment, Ace could feel everything: his Primordial World Embryo, his strong connection with the five Auxiliary Laws, the newly awakened connection between his Inner World and the outside world, the strange authority of Space Law, the evolved Thief’s Law Mark, and the terrifyingly profound power contained within his Primordial Foundation.

Yet Ace didn’t indulge in any of it, not even for a breath, as his expression remained solemn because there was no time. The moment before his breakthrough, he had already sensed the retreat of the Evernight forces. If they had truly abandoned the Undead Cradle, then he couldn’t remain here any longer.

Ace immediately closed his eyes…

‘BOOOOOOOOOOOM!’

His Primordial Law Thief Sense erupted. Unlike before, when his perception had merely expanded like an invisible ocean, this time it spread with a strange penetrating quality.

It quickly spread and reached 100,000 miles. In an instant, everything within that enormous region became vaguely perceptible.

The countless layers of earth, the spatial folds, the remnants of formations, the scattered Corpse Clan cultivators, the raging battlefield, the weakened Abyssal Miasma Ghost, and even the lingering fluctuations left behind by the Supreme Abyssal Ordeal. Everything entered Ace’s perception.

His expression changed slightly. ‘So this is 100,000 miles of Law Sense…’

The range was already terrifying, and his Live Fate Map had undergone a similar transformation. The invisible map inside his mind expanded alongside his Primordial Law Thief Sense, and had reached 100,000 miles!

Within this enormous range, countless fate points appeared, and Ace instantly began searching, and almost every figure he could detect belonged to the Corpse Clan.

His eyes narrowed. ‘Where are the Evernight people?’

He searched again, but there was nothing, not the Evernight Dukes, or the Hunter Hunt participants. Not even the ordinary Evernight cultivators who had entered the Undead Cradle.

Ace’s heart suddenly tightened. ‘They really retreated.’

The announcement he had heard before his breakthrough immediately resurfaced in his mind. He knew the Evernight forces were leaving because of the strangeness with the Abyssal Ordeal, and judging from the complete absence of their traces, they had already begun their retreat.

Ace’s heartbeat accelerated as he thought, ‘Eva should be with them!’

He immediately reached toward another sense within his mind, and a faint connection appeared in his mind. He instantly followed it, and a vague direction appeared.

Ace’s eyes flashed, ‘Found you.’

However, he didn’t immediately move; instead, he suddenly remembered something. The first mystic ability of Space Law: Spatial Compression!

Ace’s expression became thoughtful as he had already received the ability, yet he hadn’t properly tested it. Normally, a newly comprehended mystic ability would be something worth studying carefully. But time was running out, and he couldn’t afford to travel slowly.

Ace took a deep breath.

‘Spatial Compression!’

‘HUMMMMM!’

The next moment, the space around him trembled, but nothing dramatic happened: there was no enormous spatial distortion or terrifying explosions, not even an obvious spatial passage.

Ace frowned, ‘That’s it?’

He carefully extended his Primordial Law Thief Sense, and then his eyes widened. The space between himself and the direction where Eva was hiding suddenly became strange. It wasn’t shrinking physically; rather, the distance itself was being compressed.

Ace’s pupils contracted. ‘Interesting…’

The next moment, he took one step.

‘SHUA!’

His figure vanished, but he wasn’t teleported or moved through a spatial passage; he simply stepped forward, and the next instant, he had crossed an enormous distance.

Ace appeared several thousand miles away, and his expression became stunned.

‘What?’

He immediately stopped as his Primordial Law Thief Sense swept outward again. The distance between his previous position and his current position had been enormous, yet his body had crossed it with a single step.

‘Spatial Compression doesn’t move me through space…’ Ace’s eyes gradually brightened with a hint of understanding. ‘It compresses the distance itself.’

That was fundamentally different from ordinary teleportation, as teleportation moved an existence from one coordinate to another, while spatial movement crossed space.

But Spatial Compression did something far more bizarre: it temporarily made the distance between two coordinates shorter.

Ace’s eyes flickered. ‘If ten thousand miles becomes one mile…’

He took another step.

‘SHUA!’

The world blurred, and he crossed another enormous distance.

Ace’s breathing became slightly heavier. ‘Then I only need to walk that one mile.’

A smile slowly appeared on his face, but then he noticed something else. The spatial compression wasn’t perfectly pure, for something else was mixed within it. Something dark and silent, something that made the compressed space almost imperceptible.

Ace’s eyes narrowed as he activated the ability again, and this time, he carefully examined every fluctuation.

The next moment, space compressed, but then he noticed that the Darkness immediately flowed into it. The two Laws didn’t conflict; instead, they intertwined naturally, as if darkness concealed the compressed space, while space gave darkness a path.

Lastly, because his Space Law had already integrated into the Order of Darkness within his Primordial Foundation, the interaction wasn’t the same as simply combining two Laws. It was far deeper.

Ace’s pupils trembled. ‘Space Law is being assimilated into my Darkness Order…’

The realization shocked him, as the Space Law wasn’t simply borrowing power from Darkness but had become compatible with the fundamental nature of his Prime Law. Because of that, the moment Space was compressed, Darkness naturally covered the entire process.

There was almost no fluctuation, no obvious spatial ripple, spatial tunnel, or even teleportation aura. Even Ace’s own Primordial Law Thief Sense could barely detect the exact path after the movement had already occurred.

His expression slowly became excited. ‘This is terrifying.’

He looked toward the distant direction where Eva was waiting. ‘This isn’t merely fast…’

Ace took another step.

‘SHUA!’

His figure disappeared, and then another.

‘SHUA!’

Another.

‘SHUA!’

Each step crossed an absurd distance, and the world itself seemed to fold beneath his feet.

Ace’s expression gradually changed from excitement to disbelief. ‘This speed…’

It was already far beyond every movement technique he had previously cultivated, and this wasn’t even the complete potential of Spatial Compression, for he had only just obtained it.

The ability itself could reach as far as his Primordial Law Thief Sense, which was one hundred thousand miles. As long as he could perceive the destination and establish a spatial connection, he could compress that distance.

Ace suddenly understood why the system had rewarded him with Dark World Traversal. Perhaps that spell art wasn’t merely a movement technique, and it was designed to take advantage of this very ability.

‘I need to study it properly later!’