After leaving the River-Flower city, Ace and Eva headed in the western direction since all the big cities were in the west!
They were going to the Red Mountain City, somewhere between the western and eastern low-level lands!
Red Mountain was also the nearest 1-Star city around River-Flower City, and most importantly, no one from the Grant Family or the Kelby Family would dare to move freely in a 1-Star city.
Red Mountain City was five days' travel away from the River-Flower City.
They traveled tens of miles in the forest at full speed because they feared those two families would send reinforcements after them.
But Ace was almost out of Qi after all he did today. He and Eva traveled for six hours before finding an empty cave to rest for the night.
After carefully hiding their tracks and closing the cave entrance, Eva lit the fire in the dark cave.
Ace was panting heavily while leaning against the wall of the cave. His complexion was not good because he had overdrawn his Qi.
'I've outdone myself today,' He smiled bitterly when he heard Eva's charming voice and snapped out of his thoughts.
"Give me my bag. I packed some rations."
When Ace was doing his job, Eva packed everything she could for travel. He quickly took Eva's bag out of his thief's space. Eva saw Ace take her bag out of thin air and was again overwhelmed by it.
She forgot about paled Ace and asked like a curious child, "Now, tell me quickly! How can you do things like Rylan?"
Ace was hoping to recover a bit first, but seeing her acting like a child, he swiftly recalled that she was a chatterbox, and if he didn't tell her about storage space treasures, she would pester him to no end.
'Sigh.' He sighed helplessly and told her, "It is like this in today's meeting. I saw Rylan...."
Ace revealed what happened today while Eva listened with sparkling eyes.
After fifteen minutes, Ace's story was finally finished, and he didn't care about Eva, who was flabbergasted and looking at him like he was some monster. He started to eat the cooked meat like a wild animal.
"YOU! You really did all this in half an hour?" She pointed her trembling finger at Ace while she exclaimed in shock.
Their original plan was that after Ace successfully won Gracie's trust, he would make Gracie somehow spill the beans about the Grant Family's treasury. He can't scout with the System because it only works with his mission targets.
Once Ace got the information, he would've informed Eva. Once he confirmed the position of Grant's family treasury, Ace would act and plundered the entire Grant's treasury.
He knows treasuries won't be opened easily, and if they emptied the Grant family treasury without anyone noticing it, no one knows when the treasury would be opened again.
So, in the meantime, taking advantage of Eva's knowledge about the Kelby family's hidden treasury, they would have already hit the Kelby Family's treasury and completed their task to plunder both families.
That was their original plan, but Ace had done all of this in half an hour and even got a legendary item like storage space treasure. How could Eva not be stunned-silly?
"FO whaf? (So, what)" Ace answered smugly while eating.
"Humph! Slow down, or you might choke to death." She huffed after seeing Ace's pleased face.
However, Eva has to admit this twelve-year-old guy has just robbed two of the most powerful families of a 2-star city in half an hour. She secretly admired him in her heart. "Tell me, how do you find out about Rylan's space ring, and how did he get it?"
"I don't know how he got it, but one thing is clear: he can't buy these things like space rings and all these techniques even if he has the wealth. My guess is he found this space ring on the corpse of someone from a kingdom. As for how I find out about that space ring, 'Heh, that's a trade secret." Ace grinned mysteriously.
Before, Ace had doubted the System, but after the System opened a storage space like Thief's Space as it was nothing, he even had the option to upgrade it. He was sure now that this System had come from outside this world!
He would never tell anyone about the System, not even his little sister. It's not like he didn't trust Alina; it's just that he didn't want to bring her any trouble.
Because if one day someone comes looking for his secrets or the System, they might have some heaven-defining treasure. Hence, he decided that he would never tell anyone about it.
"Fine, fine! I know you have secrets, so I won't ask again. Now give me the contract so that I can get rid of this cursed mask." Eva was displeased seeing Ace acting mysteriously and finally gave up. She just wanted to free herself from this mask now.
Ace didn't delay either and took out three thin stone slates. There were mysterious patterns engraved on them. These stone slates were item slave contracts.
Slave marks were the weakest forms of a slave contract. They were normally used on mortals and some of the weaker Qi Gates realm cultivators. Slave marks can be planted on someone by taking their blood on slave contracts, and if one isn't strong enough, they can't resist.
But Eva's mask was a higher-level slave contract. It was an item slave contract. It was a set of one item and one contract together. She was a devil, so she couldn't be bound by those normal slave contracts even if she was not strong.
However, Rylan had found this item slave contracts in that space ring. They were mainly utilized to enslave the Qi Foundation Building realm cultivators or other races with special abilities.
He thought that since Eva was a half-devil, she would be strong in the future. That was why he planted this slave item on her to control her in the future. If she wanted to free herself from this item slave contract, she had to break into the 'Qi River Realm,' a realm above the Qi Foundation Building Realm!
"Which one is yours?" Ace showed her those three stone slates
Eva's eyes brightened when she saw those slave contracts. She quickly pointed towards one in the center of this contract, which had a mysterious pattern that looked like a fox, "That one! Give it to me!" Eva said agitatedly.
Ace didn't say anything and gave the contract to her because he also wanted to free her since he considered her his 'first friend.'
Eva quickly grabbed the contract and used her power to shatter the stone slate with the fox-like engraving. The moment the stone slate shattered, the mask that tormented Eva for all these years began to crack.
When the mask on her face shattered, Eva's face was revealed for the first time in many years. Ace saw her face and was instantly bewitched by it.
Eva had an oval face that was clear of any impurities. Her skin was pristine, white, and tender, and unexpectedly, she was in no way inferior to little Alina!
She was a mature, breathtaking beauty!
With a captivating smile on her face, she looked at Ace with her fox-like hazel eyes, and her graceful figure started to exude an imposing aura. Along with the power coursing in those eyes of hers, she could easily have been mistaken as an aloof, otherworldly being.
Ace nearly forget to breathe after seeing Eva's charming face. Before, he thought that only Alina could have this kind of face when she grew up, but now, seeing another beauty on the same level as Alina, he was mystified.
Eva saw Ace drooling while he was looking at her like a fool. A smile bloomed on her beautiful face. But there were also tears in her eyes.
'I'm finally free from this curse.' She thought as she cleared the tears from her eyes.
"Why are you gawking at me like an idiot? Didn't you see any beautiful girl before?" Eva teased Ace as she giggled.
Ace snapped out of his daze and quickly noticed a droll on his lips, and he blushed. He was having a hard time just looking away from Eva's face. 'She is so gorgeous!'
Ace suddenly felt a strange feeling in his body. But before he could mull over it, he felt Eva's power suddenly start to rise rapidly and become serious.
Eva also felt her cultivation started to increase at a rapid pace. She has only opened the second Gate of Qi Gates in all these years. Now, the 3rd Gate was opened in an instant, and her cultivation was still rising!
4th Gate of the Qi Gates! But it still didn't stop there.
Eva's aura skyrocketed in seconds, and she opened the 5th Gate!
Eva's cultivator finally stopped at the Peak of Qi Gates Realm! She was only a single step away from entering the Qi Foundation Building Realm.
"Th...this, what happened?" Eva was bewildered!