Eternal Thief

After Ace decided to follow the direction Cyrus had pointed him in, he simply used his twilight Qi to remove the rubble from the way, and the tunnel ahead opened. But he blocked it again just to make sure no one followed them.

However, after half an hour of entering the tunnel, two middle-aged men with burly masculine builds entered the tunnel from the other side, and following behind them was none other than Kai!

Furthermore, unlike Kai, who was wearing gray robes, these were wearing clean white robes; they were clearly not miners.

“Are you telling the truth, little Kai?” One of the men with brown skin asked sternly.

“Yes, Lord Lonnie. As I’ve mentioned before, when I was mining the spirit stones, the wall suddenly caved in, and that’s what caused the sudden tremor. But you don’t have to come personally. I could’ve removed the rubble myself and continued the mining,” Kai said with agitation while hiding his apprehensiveness.

This Senior Lonnie was none other than the Manager of the southern part of the Spirit Stone mines. When Kai exited the secret chamber after getting benefits from Ace, the first thing he did was to report the blockade in this tunnel.

He knew that if he hid it, he wouldn’t be able to explain the delay in his delivery, and he knew some of the miners close by had heard the tremor caused by the sudden emergence of the secret chamber.

If someone else reported it, he would be in huge trouble, and they would also send people here to investigate. So, he decided to do it himself so no one else would come here, and he would also be able to protect the secret of the hidden chamber, which Ace instructed him to do.

However, Kai had never imagined that this usually lazy manager would suddenly become interested in this event and personally decide to come here to check the authority of his claim instead of just sending one of his goons.

Now, the secret he had been supposed to guard for at least two months was on the verge of unraveling in half an hour. Although Kai knew Ace was powerful, he wouldn’t be pleased after he found out that he failed to do this simple task because of his own stupidity!

“Behave, you little nobody! How dare you give a suggestion to Lord Lonnie? I’m starting to suspect that you’re only lying and want to slack off on your job!” The other man with a thick bear coldly berated Kai.

Kai’s eyes flashed with resentment because he knew why this man was going against him like this. This man, who was the Junior Manager below Lonnie, was also the lackey of the same outer city discipline that sent him to be a miner, and this man was deliberately making things difficult for him.

“I would never…”

“Enough!”

Before Kai could retort, Lonnie cut him short and glared at him, “The quota of our Southern Spirit Stone mines can’t be delayed without no good reason. So, I need to personally verify it before reporting to the city management. Unless you’ve deliberately caused this, you have nothing to worry about.” He said this while looking deeply into Kai’s expression as if he wanted to see his reaction.

Kai felt his heart sink, and he barely controlled his trembling eyes. He nodded, “I’ve done nothing such thing.”

“Good, then keep your mouth shut!” Lonnie coldly stated, and the other guy merely scoffed disdainfully, seeing Kai sheepishly back down.

Soon, these three reached the tunnel where the rubble was blocking the way further, and Kai’s heart was threatening to explode from his chest. But he knew this was now inevitable and only hoped his ‘master’ would forgive him.

Lonnie looked towards the rubble and frowned before his eyes suddenly fell on the crack in the wall. He was startled before he narrowed his eyes dangerously and looked toward Kai, “What is that?”

‘Shit! How could you not notice such a crack!’

Kai cussed himself before he quickly replied, “I don’t know, Lord Lonnie. When the wall caved in, I almost got buried under the rubble, so I quickly headed back to report it to you in my panic. I didn’t investigate the place entirely.”

“Is that so?” Lonnie clearly did not believe him. He looked at the other man and ordered, “Go and check what it is. Little Kai will lead the way.”

“You heard it? Now, lead the way.” The bearded man quickly turned to Kai, who was feeling as if his world was crumbling.

In the end, Kai had no choice but to move forward since he wasn’t powerful enough to oppose either one of them, and he absolutely abhorred himself for it.

He vowed that if Ace spared him for this incompetence, he would cultivate diligently, even if it meant breaking his body. At least then, he wouldn’t have to suffer like this.

“What the hell is this place?” The bearded man commented in shock when he entered the secret chamber, while Kai was even more shocked because Ace was nowhere to be seen.

‘Master left?’ Kai thought, and he also felt huge relief since this meant Ace wouldn’t be discovered by them or furious at him.

But there was also another possibility that Ace had just felt their presence and left. If he was a hidden expert, it wouldn’t be a big deal for him to exit this place, and no one would be able to stop him. Nonetheless, this also means he might never even see Ace again!

“Lord Lonnie, please come here, and you really wanna see this!” the bearded man completely ignored the dazed Kai and loudly exclaimed.

Thereupon, Lonnie also appeared, and he was just as shocked as the bearded man when he saw the vague carving and the altar in the middle of this chamber.

‘Could there be an ancient inheritance or some kind of treasure hidden here?’

The moment this thought appeared in Lonnie’s head, greed surfaced in his eyes as he looked towards the bearded man and Kai, and a faint killing intent leaked from him!