Eternal Thief

In the lavish hall of the Everlasting Endearment Palace, Ace was sitting with the House Members. Everyone was curious about what Ace wanted to discuss with them.

At this moment, Ace spoke, “The reason I invited you all here is that I want you all to know about our enemy, Heaven, and its minion, Heaven’s Advocate, whom I had a small encounter with just before entering the Abyss.”

The expressions of House Members instantly changed as they looked at Ace with disbelief because it was their first time hearing about this matter, especially the name of Heaven’s Advocate.

“What is going on?” Eva asked as her eyes were filled with worry, and Alina and Noa were the same. While Freya and Winter were solemn, they wanted an explanation.

Now they finally understood why Ace didn’t reveal this matter in front of the Thief Acolytes. It wasn’t because Ace didn’t trust them; they weren’t qualified to know about this matter yet, at least not before they returned from this trip to the Abyss.

Ace could have also kept this information hidden from them until they were back in Heaven, but he decided to tell them right away because their enemies were making preparations against them, and he didn’t want them to be caught off guard.

After all, Damien nearly succeeded in getting his hands on the Equilux Balance Ruler that was supposed to be used against Ace.

That’s why Ace told them everything about the Heaven’s Advocate and his last encounter with him in the PHW King Sect.

When the House Members heard Ace’s story, they were all shocked and even speechless by the tale, especially the part that involved an Ascension King.

What made their expression strange was the part when they heard how Ace tricked Damien with his Avatar and then pitted the Ascension King against Damien. They thought that Damien was quite pitiful while the Ascension King was a moron.

However, when they heard Damien using his ability to deal a grave blow to the Ascension King despite his cultivation realm only being in the Ascension Grand General Realm, they all gasped, and their expression turned slightly pale.

After all, even Ace wasn’t confident in escaping an Ascension King, much less making one flee while gravely wounded.

“…in the end, I managed to pickpocket the Sect Master of the Prime Heavenly Wealth King Sect because he was distracted by the thought of getting his hands on the treasures of the Prosperity Matriarch before I was teleported here.” Ace finally concluded his story, making the House Members look at him as if he were a lunatic.

They were lost for words, they heard the last part about Ace successfully pickpocketing the Sect Master of one of the big six king sects.

“Everything aside, from Leader’s information, if we want to deal with this Heaven’s Advocate, I think your Avatar of Holy Twilight is the key because his most powerful ability that can even make an Ascension King flee in defeat, didn’t seem to work on it, right?” Freya was the first one to give her input.

The other house members also agreed with Freya, as they looked at Ace with anticipation and felt envious of his luck in having a trump card like the Avatar of Holy Twilight in his arsenal.

Ace nodded in agreement with Freya, “I have the same thoughts. But it’s still too soon to reach any conclusion. He’s not easy to kill because Heaven selects him, and he’s the Son of Heaven. He probably has life-saving trump cards like me.

“Besides, I can’t face him with my true body unless I figure out a way to render his abilities ineffective against me, which I’m sure is not something I can achieve. After all, the previous Heaven’s Stealers might’ve also thought about this, but in the end…”

Ace didn’t speak any further, but the House Members knew what he was implying, and their expression became gloomy to extreme.

“Can he come here?” Noa suddenly asked, a hint of killing intent lacing her cold voice. She was clearly furious and wanted to stab a dagger in Damien’s heart personally.

Ace was uncertain as he replied, “I don’t know. But since the Abyssal Beings are enemies of Heavenly Beings and vice versa, we can safely assume that the Heavens are at odds with the Abysses. Regarding the influence of the Heavens in the Abysses, we need to investigate this further before reaching an accurate conclusion.

“But if the Heavens’ influence in the Abyss is minimum, if the Heaven’s Advocate dares to come after us, I might be able to deal with him.” Ace then looked towards the other house members as he continued confidently, “After all, I have you guys with me.”

The House Members have various emotions when they sense Ace’s confidence in them. It would be a lie to say they weren’t flattered and felt pleased by Ace’s comment.

However, they were also worried about Heaven, since just its minion, Heaven’s Advocate, was so hard to deal with, they couldn’t imagine what their true enemy was capable of.

At this moment, Eva suddenly smiled and confidently said, “I think Heaven can’t influence the Abyss because the concept of Heavenly Law Tribulation doesn’t exist in it!”

“What?!” Ace was startled by this sudden revelation, and so were the house members, who looked at Eva with incredulity.

After all, they knew the concept of Heavenly Law Tribulation was a norm in the Mortal Ascension Heaven, not to mention the Heavenly Ascension Tribulation, an Elemental State Cultivator needed to undergo before becoming a Law State.

Eva flashed a smile before she nodded, “You didn’t hear it wrong. There is no Heavenly Law Tribulation in the Abyss. I forgot to mention it, but I only remembered now that you brought up the matter regarding the influxes of Heaven in the Abyss.

“However, just like the Heaven test the Heavenly Beings, the Abyss also tests the Abyssal Beings. But instead of Heavenly Tribulations, there are Abyssal Ordeals. But unlike the Heavenly Tribulation, which brings out Heavenly Thunder, the Abyssal Ordeals have various variations. It is simply unpredictable.

“The most infamous Abyssal Ordeals include teleporting the Abyssal Beings directly into the heart of dangerous zones, teeming with terrifying Wandering Souls, or Abyssal Beasts. Not only that, but Abyssal Ordeal can also seal the abilities and powers of the Abyssal Beings to put them in dangerous situations.

“Then there are also Abyssal Ordeals of Souls, which involve dragging souls into terrifying soul dungeons, and then the Abyssal Beings have to escape those dungeons filled with things that can annihilate souls.

“I’ve even seen a record of a Half-Abyssal King manifestation, an ancient Abyssal King in his Abyssal King Ordeal, and then dying with a single attack of that ancient Abyssal King.” Eva’s words shocked everyone as they wore incredulous expressions on their faces.

But no one doubted her words since she had been in the Abyss of Wandering Souls for years now, and she was also a high-ranking member of the Evernight Council.

Nonetheless, they all were thinking about the mysterious Abyssal Ordeals and how unpredictable they were compared to the straightforward Heavenly Tribulations.

“What about you? What kind of Abyssal Ordeal did you encounter? Moreover, since most of us are Heavenly Beings, what will happen to us?” Zaria suddenly raised a keen question with a solemn look. She was about to recultivate, and she didn’t want any surprises, especially not surprises like those Abyssal Ordeals.

Eva pulled with a peculiar simile before she replied, “Well, that’s the thing actually, I didn’t encounter an Abyssal Ordeal at Abyssal Grand General Rank, and directly become an Abyssal Master. This was an unexpected phenomenon that I couldn’t comprehend.

“But you know what even bizarre is? It’s when my thief acolytes become Law State Abyssal Beings; they also didn’t encounter any Abyssal Ascension Ordeals. The only conclusion that I reached about it was…” Eva suddenly looked at Ace tenderly.

Ace’s eyes widened as he instantly guessed what Eva was implying, and the house members weren’t fools either.

“Are you telling us that this has something to do with Thief House?” Winter blurted out, seeking Eva’s confirmation.

Eva nodded without hesitation, “That’s the only explanation I could think of. After all, I didn’t find anything similar in any records of the Evernight Council. Furthermore, the corruption of Abyssal Spirit Qi has no effect on us either, and the thief acolytes’ cultivation techniques can absorb both the Abyssal Spirit Qi of Abyss and the Spirit Qi inside the Thief’s House.

“Moreover, don’t forget, we don’t need to undergo either Heavenly Tribulation or Abyssal Ordeals within the Thief’s House! Last time when I broke through into Law State, I should’ve encountered an Abyssal Ascension Ordeal, but I succeeded without experiencing any difficulty.

“That’s why I also didn’t know about Abyssal Ordeal, and my inheritance memories remained dormant until I entered the Abyss of Wandering Souls. Now, we all can enter Abysses while the Heavenly Beings or even the rulers of Heaven can’t, don’t you guys think it’s eerily coincidental?”