Eternal Thief

’How did I manage to get inside the Undead Boundary?!’

Ace was really skeptical when he finally realized this uncanny anomaly, and if he hadn’t known better, he would’ve suspected himself of being one of the Undead Race.

“Hey system, you definitely know what’s going on!” He quickly inquired with confidence because the system always knows.

However, the system didn’t bother to clarify, which made Ace exasperated, but he was now used to it. Moreover, Ace was an anomaly himself, and there were plenty of reasons that could’ve allowed him to bypass what not even Evernight Kings cannot.

’Wait…’ Ace’s eyes suddenly dilated ever so slightly as his expression became grave when he thought about an even bigger problem, ’Since the Undead Boundary is concealed from outside eyes, doesn’t this mean the Evernight Council couldn’t monitor what’s going on inside as well?’

Ace glanced at the Ring of Lone Hunter as his expression turned grimmer, ’If I were a normal participant, one of many, no one would’ve bothered to monitor me at this juncture, or unless I did something extraordinary.

’However, I’m the sole disciple of the Moonless Wandering King, and on top of that, the Lone Hunter of the Hunter’s Hunt. The biggest target of attraction that can change the destiny of anyone who manages to hunt me down. I don’t believe that no one was monitoring me, probably Evernight Kings, even!

’So, if there’s even the slightest chance that someone was monitoring me and they saw me going into the Undead Boundary…’

Ace’s heart beat faster because he knew he had unknowingly done something extremely extraordinary, and once the Evernight Kings found out, they would definitely not sit still.

Moreover, if those Evernight Kings thought that he was an ’Undead Race’ pretending to be an Abyssal Being, they would turn hostile.

Especially if they connected the Ghost King with him as well and thought the Ghost King was just a sacrifice so he could earn the Evernight Council’s trust and then use it to enter the Evernight Sanctuary.

Even if they somehow believed he wasn’t an Undead Race member, they would definitely demand an explanation from the Moonless Wandering King, and at that time, Ace’s entire scheme would crumble down.

’By some impossible chance that no one would be monitoring me, once the Hunter’s Hunt started, my position would be revealed to everyone, or possibly not at all because of the Undead Boundary.

’Everyone will notice it at that time. I can still go back, but I have a feeling that I’ve been already discovered…what should I do now?’

Ace was at an impasse, never having imagined he would be a victim of his own curiosity like this. Although it was a good thing he had escaped from the Evernight Council’s eyes, it was worth nothing in front of what he had done to craft Nomad’s identity!

As Ace remained deep in thought, his mind weighed down by the potential catastrophe he had just invited upon himself, the sealed cubical chamber suddenly trembled once more.

The familiar, dull vibration coursed through the black walls, subtle yet unmistakable, making Ace’s eyes snap open.

The chamber was activating again. Now that he had gained most of the knowledge of the Corpse Clan, he knew this thing wasn’t just a transport box. This cubical structure was known among the Corpse Clan as the Vein-Carriage.

It was an ancient construct that predated even the Corpse Clan’s recorded history, a relic embedded into the Undead Boundary itself.

The Vein-Carriage functioned as a living conduit, burrowing through layers of stone, space, and laws like a colossal subterranean beast. It did not rely on orthodox teleportation formations. Instead, it traveled through fixed undead-veins that existed only within the Undead Boundary.

Inside the Boundary, the Vein-Carriage could reach any designated sector seamlessly, but outside it, it was completely inert.

The Evernight Council knows nothing of the Vein-Carriage, and even if they did, they could never steal or replicate it, for the Vein-Carriage was never meant to leave.

Ace also now understood the Corpse Clan’s spatial hierarchy.

What outsiders saw as the Hunter’s Hunt trial ground was referred to by the Corpse Clan as the Upper Ancient Battlefield. A desolate surface soaked in death, and now an endlessly recycled as a slaughter ground for intruders.

But beneath it existed the true world of the Corpse Clan, a buried stratum known as the Lower Grave Strata.

That was where the Corpse Clan had lived for countless years, carving civilizations beneath layers of ancient corpses, battlefield sediment, and death-saturated stone.

The Undead Boundary enclosed both levels, but only the Lower Grave Strata were truly theirs. The Vein-Carriage connected the Lower Grave Strata to the Upper Ancient Battlefield through fixed undead-veins.

Moreover, the Upper Ancient Battlefield, protected by the Undead Boundary, was called Corpse Canyon and was divided into many sectors.

Within the Lower Grave Strata, it had only six permanent exit nodes, each corresponding to one of the major Corpse Canyon sectors. Everywhere else, the stone was absolute.

At that moment, just as the Vein-Carriage’s walls began to separate again, Ace reacted instantly and without hesitation, space folded around him once more.

’Thief Shelter!’

His figure slipped into the thin seam between dimensions as the chamber opened, pale corpse-light spilling inside before heavy footsteps followed.

Another Corpse Squad had arrived!

Five more figures entered, their movements disciplined and silent. Their bodies bore different states of decay from those of the previous group.

One had half of his jaw missing, replaced by a blackened bone plate engraved with corpse-runes. Another’s arm was visibly mismatched, its joints slightly misaligned, as if it had once belonged to a much larger being.

Their auras were dense, stable, and deeply integrated with corrosion around them. To Ace’s senses, they felt less like cultivators and more like mobile concentrations of refined miasma.

’Another squad heading to the Upper Ancient Battlefield,’ Ace thought calmly, and as he expected, one of them produced a black talisman.

“Corpse Canyon Sector Number Nine.”

The talisman dissolved into silent decay, and the Vein-Carriage responded immediately, its walls beginning to close.

But Ace didn’t let it end there as his gaze sharpened as he assessed them as he does with his every new victim!