503 Thieves on Mission!
Inside a stony room,
Three caped figures were sitting around a stone table where a map was placed.
One of them said in her euphonious voice, "As we predicted, the security is only half, and all the leaders have gone to the life demon auction. According to my minions, the Magistrate Estate only had four soul realm elders and twenty river core realm guards. It shouldn't be a problem to complete this task."
A childish voice retorted, "Although it's easy now, we still don't know if we can steal 5 million house points worth of goods from there anymore. Don't forget, because of that auction. They might have taken every Qi stone with them for bidding."
"Faceless is right. We might not complete the mission." An icy voice sounded in agreement.
These three were none other than three thieves of the Thief House.
From the moment, Ace made them become bandits to raise Freya and Winter's ranks. These three had founded the bandit gang name 'Moon Robbers', and for months they had been antagonizing the merchants and adventurers in the Demon Tamer Province.
They had even earned a notorious reputation for themselves.
Just as Ace predicted, no one paid any attention to a small bandit group and take them seriously until it was too late.
Those authorities only started to send powerful knights after them when these three stole a caravan of goods from a magistrate clan's firm.
But they failed to find these Moon Robbers because they had already achieved their aimed and gone into hiding.
Since the Life Demon Auction was coming, those authorities had no choice but to set this matter aside and focus on the event.
Now that the most powerful demons were attending the life demon auction, this also gave the thief house members a chance to complete their mission.
It was a perfect time to strike while they could and then leave.
Ace had already discussed this mission with them countless times, and their entry and escape plans were flawless.
However, it seemed they had missed the part about the half-empty treasury because of the life demon auction this time.
Freya mildly said, "This is indeed a problem, but we can't just sit here, right? Although they might've taken most of their wealth with them, they would never take the precious things passed down from generation to generation, right?"
She had thought about this problem as well, but it was too late to discuss it with Ace since he had left for the auction to do other things. He had no part in this, and they were on their own.
Suddenly, Freya took out a shimmering communication cube.
"It's the leader?" Noa coldly asked with a hint of anticipation.
Freya nodded and activated the cube and placed it on the table.
Ace's jolly voice sounded, "So, ladies, how are things going on your end?"
Winter's glumly retorted, "You still have the cheek to ask? We have a treasure problem here!"
"What kind of problem?" Ace's voice turned stern.
He knew this mission was very important for the thief house members and this was the only easy chance they would get to complete the mission. If they didn't take this chance, it won't be this easy next time.
All the old monsters were attending the auction, and he provided everything he could to break past the formations and arrays, so this heist could work smoothly. He didn't want to hear this.
"What Faceless mean is, probably all the Qi stones and valuables are taken to the auction by the clans. We might not be able to achieve the target of 5 million without those treasures and the Q stones." Freya explained.
"Is that your problem, really?" Ace sounded amused.
"What do you mean?" Winter's voice turned cold. 'Is he wanted us to die?!'
Ace sighed and said, "Since one treasury isn't enough, just theft the entire damn city. Not all of them were eligible for this auction, right? There are thousands of shops in the market. Just start from there and you might not even need to enter the magister mansion.
"Are the Ghost Lurking Formation and Demonic Sword Killing Formation. I don't think these two grade-5 formations aren't enough, right?"
"Didn't we supposed to steal five million from a single place?" Noa asked in astonishment.
However, Freya answered instead of Ace with gleaming eyes, "No, we assumed we were supposed to theft one place. Besides, it also depends on what we consider 'One Place'. Like, we can assume this room as one place, or we can assume the entire mountain as one place. We just have to theft five million together at the same time, not separately!"
Ace chuckled, "See, it was just a question of your teamwork. You were never given a specific target or required amount to collect. It's a house mission, not an individual mission.Now that this is out of the way. I contact you to tell you the auction would last for ten days and the demon gate trail will start soon after. So, you guys have seven days to complete your mission and reached the rendezvous point.
"More than seven, and we'll all be in danger. Is that clear?" His voice was strict.
"Don't worry. Seven days are more than enough to complete this mission. You just have to take care of your end." Noa assured.
"Heh, don't worry. They can't catch me." Ace chuckled confidently and cut the communication.
"Hmph, he's too arrogant." Winter snorted.
Freya chuckled. "He's the Sky Stealer, after all. Now that our conflict has been clear when we should move?"
"Tomorrow night. Let's end this in one fell swoop." Noa coldly replied.
"Good. The sooner it ends, the sooner I can buy other techniques and start cultivating them." Winter nodded with great excitement.
"We'll do as sister Assassin suggests." Freya also agreed, with a hint of anticipation.
---
Inside the personal chamber of a life master on the 19th VIP level,
Ace put away the communication cube before he closed the concealing formation. He didn't want anyone to hear his conversation with his house members.
He couldn't help but smile wryly. 'I'm glad I contacted them or they had figured it out too late.'
He looked in the mirror projection at this moment. Lilly was back!
Lilly flashed a radiant smile as she spoke, "I hope everyone is really for the next round. It'll be going to be even more exciting.
"Without further ado, let me present you with the first item of the second day. Behold!"
The platform rose and everyone was eager to see what was the item.
Soon, an old yellow scroll appeared.
Lilly introduced, "This is an Upper Earth Grade skill called Hell Stinger Fists. I don't need to tell anyone just how precious an upper-earth grade skill is. This fist skill had three levels and at the final level, one can poke a hole in grade-2 treasures with their fists!
"The starting price is 100,000 high-grade-2 Qi stones. The bid is open!"
The entire arena boiled when they heard the introduction. Just the skill rank was enough to make them bid for this technique, much less its prowess.
The bid instantly raised to five million, and it was still climbing as some VVIPs were also joining the bid.
In the end, a VVIP bought it for 5.4 million and everyone sighed in regret.
Lilly didn't delay and quickly revealed a blue book this time.
She introduced, "This is an Upper Earth Soul Skill, Grim Hands. According to the description, the Grim Hands can abruptly attack the enemy's mind and inflict grave soul wounds if the user catches the enemy off guard. This skill had five levels and at the last level, one can manifest Grim Hands with soul Qi!
"The price of this precious soul skill is 250,000 high grade-2 Qi stones. The bid is opened!"
The VIP levels started to bid madly. Even half of the VVIP rooms got involved because this was a soul skill that was extremely hard to get.
The bid reached ten million within a few moments and was still rising. Even the VIPs haven't given up.
When the bid reached over fifteen million, the VIP stands gave up because those VVIPs are not showing any signs of giving up.
"I have to get this skill," Thomas mumbled in his room with a grim expression and raise the bid to twenty million!
Inside room no.542, Darren sneered when he saw Thomas's room on the screen.
"This skill is interesting." He directly raised the bid to thirty million!
"That hateful prick!" Thomas gritted his teeth and raised the bid to forty million!
Darren scoffed and raised the bid to forty-five million. He was determined to get this skill, even if Thomas wasn't bidding against him.
However, another bid surface made everyone gasp.
Lilly announced with a hint of ecstasy, "Room No.6 has just bid a hundred million Qi stones. Let's start the counting!"
No one dared to even think of bidding anymore because they knew a Demon King just get involved!
"400 Million going twice…" Lilly was already content with this price and was about to close the deal when a new bid appeared, startling everyone.
Lilly's eyes slightly narrowed, but she still announced, "Room.19-3 just bid 500 million!"
Everyone was bewildered since there wasn't any room below the 20th level.
However, those attendants quickly told them it was the room that belonged to a Life Master.
Everyone Life Master had their own personal room on every level they were in charge of, while the Life Grandmasters' rooms were on the 20th level.
Exalted Demon King frown slightly, 'A Life Grandmaster, huh? Let me see how badly you want this skill.'
He increased the bid by fifty million.
However, the Life Master in Room 19-3 raised it directly by 150 million, which made the final bid 700 million.
Exalted Demon King sneered coldly, but didn't bid anymore.
Lilly counted, "… 700 million going trice and sold! On to the next item!"
She didn't dwell on this bid much, since they all knew Life Masters were part of this auction and they can compete with anyone because of their status.
Ace chuckled when he saw the golden ticket generate by the formation and put it away. As a Life Master, he can pay at the end of the auction.
He didn't have many attacking soul skills in his arsenal, and this skill introduction intrigued him. He wanted to see if he could make a new skill out of this one and some other skills he had collected.
After the Grim Hands soul skill, the next items were rather ordinary in comparison. But in the eyes of VIPs and Open stands, these items were luxurious as they bid desperately to win them.
There were still some items that interested some VVIPs, but the Demon Kings didn't bother with them.
Hours passed like this, and now it was time for the last item before the second day would be over.
Lilly put on a charming smile before she revealed the last item of the day.
A gray, decrepit talisman appeared in a jade box.
She introduced, "This a Limit Talisman unearthed from a ruin. Most of the guests here did not know what a Limit Talisman is. Let me make it clear, a Limit Talisman isn't like our traditional Instant Talisman that can only be used one time.
"A Limit Talisman had multiple uses and it won't exhaust with a single use. We have long-lost the method to make Limit Talismans. Nevertheless, someone still wanted to sell this precious talisman.
"As for its function, this is a defensive barrier type talisman that can block soul or martial attacks below Soul Manifestation Realm, and its grade is high-grade-5, and there are still three uses left.
"But there is another function of this talisman, 'Limit Break'. With this Limit Break, we can use this limit talisman's three used all at once, and the barrier formed by these three used can even block a full strike from a soul manifestation realm cultivator!"
The entire arena was startled by this revelation, and some demon's eyes turned bloodshot as they looked at the old talisman.
Even those Demon Kings were now looking at the old talisman with solemn eyes. The talisman that can block a strike from a soul manifestation realm expert was just too rare in eight provinces.
Lilly smiled and announced, "The seller wanted Low-Grade-3 Qi stones for this Limit Talisman, and the price is 10,000 Qi stones, and every bid has to be increased by 100 Qi stones. The bid is open!"
Those in the open stand howled in regret when they heard Low-Grade-3 Qi stones, while many VIPs cursed this seller for being unreasonable.
Because Grade-3 Qi stones were the most precious Qi stones in the eight provinces and only king domains had them. No one was willing to trade these Qi stones, no matter the price.
Now, 85% populace has become ineligible to take part in this bid for this ancient talisman.
Nevertheless, those who can bid quickly started to put their bids while the others helplessly watched.
Ace also looked at those decrepit symbols of the talisman with great interest. 'Block an attack from a soul manifestation realm, huh? It also has research value. Even those Runic Life Grandmasters are bidding. Let's join in the fun.'
Ace smiled deviously and put on his bid, which almost made those slow bidders almost cough blood.
Lilly couldn't help but be astonished and announced, "Room.19-3 just bid 1 million Qi stones!"
"What a rich bastard!" A Life Master on the same floor couldn't help but exclaim and doubt if they had the same rank.
Although one million low-grade-3 Qi stones were still possible for them, spending it still made them feel the pinch.
"Who is in that room?" A runic life grandmaster on the 20th level with cold brown eyes wandered.
While the other six Life Grandmasters also had the same question.
The eight Life Grandmaster titles were divided between three soul alchemists, one runic crafter smith, and four rune crafters.
Since Gatlin was out of commission, only seven were present in this auction, and they were all in charge of the 20th level.
That ancient talisman has great research value, so these four Life Grandmasters and the Runic Crafter Smith naturally wanted it for themselves. But now, a junior was making things worse by raising the price by a million altogether.
Another Runic Grandmaster from Spear Province raised the bid by ten thousand and hoped this guy back down.
However, to his dismay, Ace raised the bid to two million without any hesitation.
They quickly took out their communication cube and ordered to look for the Life Master who was bidding against them, while they bid again by a small amount.
However, every time they raise the bid by a little, Ace would increase by a million!505 Progress Interface
'Lunatic!' The audience thought.
They all knew these demons from the association were all eccentrics, but this guy was simply on another level to spend his money like water, while he didn't give the VVIPs any face!
Inside the VVIP room no.34,
A crimson demon sat with a hint of a frown on his long face. He wore the robes of the life demon association's rune crafter. He was the life grandmaster of the Beast Tamer Province, Haydn.
"So, it's Ville, huh? It seemed the rumor about him doing unethical deals was true, after all. Well, he can keep this talisman, save for me now." He sneered as a distant glint flashed past his red eyes.
Almost everyone gave up on the talisman because the price was too high and this was still the second day of the auction. There was still the grand finale, so everyone was saving as much as they can.
On the stage, Lilly announced, "Room.19-3 won this Limit Talisman for 5 million low-grade-3 Qi stones!
"So, this was the end of the second day. I'll see you all in two hours!"
Ace smiled in satisfaction when he saw another golden ticket generate.
—
While the Life Demon Auction was still proceeding at the Forbidden Plains, the Black River City was still lively.
At this moment,
Three capped figures slowly crept inside the city gates and successfully infiltrate the city, escaping the guards or any formation.
There was a dark barrier around them which made them invincible in everyone's eyes as they moved without any hindrance.
These three were none other than Noa, Freya, and Winter, who had just started their house mission!
After successfully infiltrating the Black River City, they first sneak inside the Treasure Cloud Firm's secret room.
Freya wore a black mask, which also hid her unique eyes. She spoke, "There are over a thousand shops in the outer market while over five hundred in the inner market.
"The firms of rich families and Magistrate Clans are also there, so we should raid the inner market. If we still fell short in the end, we can go with our original plan and raid the Magistrate Clan of Black River City.
"The question is how we are going to keep this under wrap until we're done?"
Noa wore her usual mask and coldly uttered, "We can steal their storage rings and then kill them. This way, there won't be any Qi marks on the storage rings or any witnesses left. It would be perfect thievery."
Winter's eyes were also cold. "Assassin is right. We can't mess this up. We don't have all the skills in our shops, neither we are professional like a certain liar. So, we should do it in our own way. As long as we kill any witnesses, we can complete our mission while also escaping."
Freya chuckled coldly. "Fine by me. Assassin can handle the east wing, while Faceless can clean up the west wing, and I'll be in charge of the north wing. We'll meet in the south wing before heading toward Main Street, where the Puppeteer Demon Firm is with other big firms.
"The Ghost Lurking Formation and Demonic Sword Killing Formation will be useful there. We can handle other shops and their security with these grade-4 killing formations. The Leader also left three hundred talismans for an emergency. We'll get a hundred each."
Freya quickly started to distribute the things Ace left to make their mission as easy as he could.
Winter looked at the coin talismans and couldn't help but praise them. "I have never seen such a talisman before. It seemed our great leader isn't just proficient in lying and stealing."
Freya nodded in agreement. Even she couldn't fathom these coin talismans fully, despite being a fourth-grade rune crafter herself. She even asked Ace to teach her these runes and talisman crafting.
He quickly agreed to her request. He can teach her the knowledge of ordinary runes since the heavenly runes were useless to her.
"He's the most talented person in this world." Noa declared as matter-of-factly in reverence.
She was the only one who knew Ace can cultivate both Soul Qi and Martial Qi simultaneously, and these two newcomers were still ignorant about this.
After staying with them and working together, she knew these two ambitions and couldn't help but scoffed inwardly. She could tell Ace didn't put them in their place because he didn't want to hurt their pride and break their resolve.
But she was looking forward to the day when they both knew just how laughable their ambition was to dethrone Ace as the house leader.
"Not for long." Winter retorted softly, but she still agreed with Noa.
However, both she and Freya think it was because Ace had a time advantage over them, and he might've already improved his bloodline to the ninth grade already and bought everything from his shop. That's why he was so talented.
Noa didn't rebut, she just picked her things.
After finalizing the plan more time, they separated into three different directions.
No one in the Black River City knows three ruthless thieves were going to make their rememberable debut this night, which will be going to shake the entire Demon Tamer Province!
—
Inside the auction arena,
Ace, who was waiting for the next round of auctions to start, was suddenly startled when a notification appeared in front of him.
=====
[House Mission: A Grand Entrance]
[The House Mission has been triggered!]
[The Progress Interface has been activated. The host can access the Progress Interface through House Mission.]
House Mission: Progress Interface]
[Mission Conditions and Requirements have been applied!]
[Time: 23:25:43]
–
[Thief Assassin (Noa Night)]
-Current Progress Status: 183 House Point(s)
-Required Progress Status to Pass: 1,500,000 House Point(s)
–
[Evil Thief (Freya Witch)]
-Current Progress Status: 247 House Point(s)
-Required Progress Status to Pass: 1,500,000 House Point(s)
–
[Faceless Thief (Winter Fox)]
-Current Progress Status: 140 House Point(s)
-Required Progress Status to Pass: 1,500,000 House Point(s)
–
-Total Progress Status: 570 HP
-Required Progress Status to Complete the House Mission: 5,000,000 HP
—
[Note (1): The House Leader will get the total of TP when the Progress Interface is deactivated or in case of Mission Failure or Completion.]
[Note (2): The Progress Interface will refresh every five minutes.]
[Note (3): The House Leader cannot break any house mission conditions and requirements, or the progress interface will automatically be canceled and can't activate for another 24 hours.]
=====
"Are you for real?" Ace's eyes narrowed when he saw this Progress Interface.
Although he now knows those three have already started moving and he can monitor their progress with this. But the system also rendered him useless with this progress panel as well.
As long as he broke any conditions of the house mission, it would completely ruin the entire mission, no matter if they complete it or not.
The system would never acknowledge the mission's success as long as this interface wasn't activated.
It mostly affected the house members, since they would suffer the most if the mission stopped in the middle, and all their planning and hard work would go to waste.
Furthermore, this thing has a time limit, which he can't tell them now or it would ruin their mission since they had already started it. He can only hope they were quick on their feet.
Nevertheless, Ace wasn't worried much since he had already given them everything they needed to complete this mission or they escape unharmed, even if they failed somehow.
'Now, it's on you guys. Don't fail me.' Ace thought with great anticipation as he didn't close this panel and kept it open in front of him.
At this moment, Lilly had returned, wearing a tight white dress that showcased her buxom figure.
Everyone held their breath since they knew the first item and the last item of every day were of an incredibly high value.
Lilly smiled brightly and expressed, "Welcome to the third day of the Life Demon Auction, everyone. Let's move to the first item of the day!"
Just as her voice trailed off, the platform in the middle of the stage rose, and a glass display was on top of this platform.
Everyone looked at the exquisite white full-body armor, giving off a shiver sheen.
Lilly introduced, "This is a high-grade-4 runic fully body armor, White Brilliance. It has a reshaping function, so there's no need to worry about body size or gender. The starting bid for White Brilliance is 100,000 peak-Grade-2 Qi stones. The minimum raise limit is 200 peak-grade-2 Qi stones. The bid is open!"
"How generous of the life demon association to put a high-grade-4 runic armor on the auction. It's worth the peak-grade-2 Qi stones tag." The Ghost Demon King's empty eyes were glued on the White Brilliance as he placed his bid.
However, he wasn't the only demon king who was interested in this armor. Soon, almost all the demon kings were bidding for this runic armor.
Even those high elders got involved for the first time in bidding!