Eternal Thief

Under the vague light of the crescent moon, Ace was sitting cross-legged on top of the sail as strong winds brushed past his long hair, making them flutter like dark flames.

A powerful aura was emitting on his person. However, his aura wasn't completely tranquil but slightly chaotic and dark.

It had been 54 days since he had left the secret realm and started traveling in the endless sea by following the live fate map and his fortune sense.

However, there was no trace of lands as far as he could see, and he was now getting impatience. But he was still quite helpless in this and could do nothing but endure. The only thing worth mentioning was he was making progress in his skills, and he would encounter sea beasts occasionally as well.

At this moment, he opened his eyes as lingering dark lightning flashed past them. He suddenly looked ahead and frowned when he saw a veil of black fog over a mile ahead.

'I need to enter that fog?' Ace frowned as he confirmed his speculation by opening the fate map despite his fortune sense pointing him in that direction anyway.

As he moved closer to the fog, he felt a familiar suffocating sensation, and suddenly he remembered where he had felt this kind of sensation before.

'It's Martial and Soul Radiation!' Ace's expression clouded when he remembered his encounter at the entrance of the test of the Royal Demon Institute.

He was exposed to Martial and Soul Radiation up to 5 Points, so he knew the environment within the radiation was extremely suffocating for a cultivator.

Although this radiation was harmless to Ace, he was in the endless sea. Normally, any cultivator tends to avoid areas with radiation like the plague because any item with Qi will be started to wither in Radiation.

The higher the density of the Radiation, the higher the withering speed, and if a cultivator lost all the Qi in its body, it was over for them.

Ace looked at the sailboat quickly approaching the radiation fog and thought, 'If I use its protective barrier, the Qi stones consumption will be ten-fold in that fog or even more if that radiation is above 10 points.

'Furthermore, this indicator is clearly leading me toward some treasure since no continent is surrounded by any radiation fog in my knowledge. But I can't just turn around after coming this far, and I lack anything but Qi stones.'

After binding his resolve, he activated the sailboat's protective barrier, and a crimson translucent doom appeared around the boat.

If he wasn't afraid of the sailboat getting destroyed by the radiation fog, he didn't need a barrier at all to survive in that fog. This sailboat was the only one he had, not to mention the fastest, so he was quite careful while handling it.

As Ace entered the fog, the feeling of suffocation reached its peak because there was no even trace of Qi within this fog, and the Qi stones imbued in the sailboat's formation also started to shimmer madly.

'This radiation fog is really above 10 points, which means this area is even the bane of soul manifestation realm cultivators. Just what kind of thing is hiding here which could be useful for me?

'Unless it's another elemental orb, and this fog is its natural barrier. This trip might be worth it if it is an elemental orb.' Ace's eyes shimmered with expectancy when this thought appeared.

He still remembered how he found the lightning orb and then even the regal fiend tower. So, it would be a lie to say; he wasn't excited to see what kind of treasure he would end up with there.

His mind was at somewhat ease now that he knew Winter was already on the azure wind continent, and with her current skill set, she might be able to pull the impossible.

Ace kept the live fate map active as he moved with black fog while keeping an eye on the Qi stone consumption and replacing them with a new batch when the last one turned into dust.

The wealth he accumulated in fifteen years was really something that could make any green with envy, and only the Sky Stealer could endure such a huge Qi stone loss without batting an eye.

After moving in the black fog for over three hours, Ace's expression was stern because the Qi stone consumption had suddenly doubled as the black fog had become thick as clouds.

Furthermore, the fate map was no longer gray, but it had turned red ten minutes ago.

'Should I turn around?' Ace thought gloomily, but he persisted and stood his ground and continued ahead, but he was at full-time high alert.

But Ace's expression suddenly wrapped, and his eyes widened in horror because a black fate point suddenly appeared a few hundred meters ahead of him. It was moving right in his direction with a terrifying speed.

It was so fast before Ace could react, the black fate point was already inclined with his own fate point, and Ace's heart nearly stopped.

But he was bewildered when he noticed that the black fate point was brushed past his fate point in the fate map and continued moving straight and soon vanished with its terrifying speed.

Filled with cold sweat, Ace muttered with a pale expression, "W-what just happened?"

However, he soon snapped out of his daze when the sailboat suddenly started to shake and lift, and when he saw ahead, his eyes contracted because a hundred-meter-high wave was rising.

'Don't tell me that black fate point was a sea beast, and it just swam past me? But what kind of beast could be so fast, and it could create such a wave by just passing by?' Ace's heart turned cold when he thought about it, and for the first time, he felt the true terror of the mysterious endless sea.

Although the boat could easily survive that huge wave, his problem was only getting started when he saw something that sent shivers down his spine.

Because all of a sudden, the red fate map was now turning into dark crimson before it went completely pitch black!