Eternal Thief

The scene in front of Ace was like some monochrome painting which was filled with narrow slits, and from within, colorful lights were emitting. It was like someone had torn through that strange barrier with a knife multiple times.

Furthermore, with Ace's sharp thief sense, he could feel faint traces of Qi leaking from those cracks, and something was trying to prevent that.

Nevertheless, it wasn't that important at this moment. Instead, Ace had pretty good assumptions about what had caused this.

'Could it be when I destroyed the Sun Secret Realm, the aftermath caused all this?' Ace thought grimly, 'I should've known this would've happened since the Sun Secret Realm was a part of the Sun Mountain, and heaven is involved above all. It seems this mysterious barrier is deeply connected with the secret realms.

'Then this also means after I destroyed the Sun Secret Realm, the union members would do anything to protect the Moon Secret Realm. Furthermore, since I'd just vanished after the secret realm's destruction, people would've presumed me dead.

'So, if I returned now and from completely opposite direction, I don't think I can escape the integration. Especially the Union Leader's questioning. That guy is not simple, and I can't begin to fathom his prowess.

'He might've already suspected me in his heart, so going back as White is nothing but suicidal. But this also means my advantage has vanished. I still have my union token that the feather upgrade into Sun Chaser and Moon Seeker Token before Cyrus get rid of it.

'According to him, I can enter the Moon Secret Realm with that token as long as I enter Moon Mountain. But it won't be easy since this place is the union…'

Ace sighed in frustration as he never expected this situation back in the union would be so complicated. He knew better than anyone just how difficult it was to sneak with the union without getting notice first.

The last time he entered, he was instantly approached by a union instructor-level figure, and there were the stairways he needed to take before he could even begin to contemplate entering Moon Mountain.

In the end, Ace had no choice but to move forward, no matter the consequences. His life was on the line here, and that's why he needed to enter the Moon Secret Realm no matter what.

But this never meant he had no other options. He was not the same ignorant person who just drifted into this place last time. Now, he was stronger and also had a wealth of an entire realm to back him up.

Ace fingers suddenly formed a sign, and the next moment, the invisible ship reappeared. But nine dark streaks suddenly broke away from different parts of the ship and then attached to Ace's body!

Those nine dark streaks were none other than the Heavenly Formation Coin, which now shimmered nine different dark blue rune symbols. Not only these nine heavenly array rune symbols could attach themselves to any object turning it into a runic medium, but they can do the same with living things, just like talismans!

Just like now, with a special command, Ace had detached those coins from the ship and directly attached them to his body, achieving the same effect as the Lesser Heaven Concealment Array!

That's what made them unique and terrifying.

It was also the reason Ace came to love these HF coins and put so much time into learning all sorts of array combinations and unlocking some important ones with TP.

But this was just the start of his preparation to enter the union. The next moment, a violet formation plate which was filled with ancient symbols, appeared in his hand.

It was a low-grade-8 formation called the Windfall of Space that he got from the final layer of the Sun Secret Realm, and it was one of the three grade-8 formations he got from there.

This formation has three functions, stealth, space tear, and small teleportation!

The stealth can only be discovered by an intermediate-grade-8 anti-stealth formation or a Law Comprehension Realm Expert's soul or martial sense.

The Space Tear ability was also quite simple yet very useful. It can create a small tear within a formation barrier of any kind below grade-8 and then let its user enter it 100 meters deep without triggering any alarm or traps.

Last but not least, the Small Teleportation can instantly teleport its user to 250 meters radius distance.

This was Ace's biggest trump card. But any of these function costs were astronomical. Because Ace can't supply the Qi needed to activate any of this formation's functions. So, he needed Grade-7 or higher-level Qi stones or Soul Crystals to supply it with the power to operate.

Even with Ace's wealth, he had a limited amount of Grade-7 Qi Stones and Soul Crystals of four quality grades that he only acquired from the Sun Secret Realm.

Nevertheless, they were still enough to be sufficient for a long time, but he still wanted to save as many as he could since those precious recourses were priceless.

Thereby, he stowed away the ship and then flew over this flying sword close to the cracked barrier. After he confirmed that there was no one behind that barrier with the live fate map, he finally activated the Windfall of Space's stealth function and tried to use the space tear on that barrier.

He had no idea just what rank that barrier was, and if it were below the Windfall of Space's rank, it would've easily breached.

However, the violet formation plate shimmered in front of the dark barrier for a few moments before becoming dormant, and nothing happened. This mean was this barrier was even higher than the low-grade-8 rank!

Ace frowned a little, but it wasn't like he hadn't expected this, so he tried to use the small teleportation direction of the barrier. He wanted to avoid touching this barrier if he could. He was even really to use his Space Step Talisman.

If none of that works, then Ace was willing to use his final trump card as well, but he doesn't want to touch that damn barrier at all costs.

However, it never came to that when the formation plate suddenly shimmed in violet-white, and Ace suddenly vanished from his spot.

The next moment, when he appeared, a feeling of pernicious enveloped his mind, but it was momentarily as he quickly regained his composure.

Ace found himself in a bright, familiar surrounding as he was floating over a crystal-clear water body, and behind him was blankness just as he remembered it. It was like nothing had happened at all.

Even from there, he could see a massive stairway silhouette straight up ahead, and he smiled in satisfaction, 'I'm finally back!'