Eternal Thief

Inside a room in Flame Palace, two men were in a heated discussion and an old man was especially fuming with anger. He was very incensed about something. 

These two men were naturally, Alvin and Lan. 

After Alvin told Elder Lan about the recent development regarding Finn, Lan nearly blew his top and bluntly called Alvin a fabulist and even though he was backing down from his promise.

In the end, when Alvin saw Lan was about to contact Flame Master William, Alvin quickly hand-over the message of his father he received this morning to Lan.

Finally, after Lan heard the recording his anger alleviated greatly, and believed in Alvin's words. But even for him, it was still hard to believe that Alvin's clan didn't seem to care about element physique much and a thief was more important to them.

This raise many questions in the old man's heart but no one was here to give him an answer since Alvin was in the same situation as him. 

Between their dialogues, Lan received another long-distance message directly from the headquarters and the content was surprisingly the same as Alvin's father, and the person who send this message was non-other than Flame Master William!

Both, Alvin and Lan's faces turn decolorized when they heard William's husky voice, and this time William even ordered Lan to search with Alvin for that thief and leave Finn in the Flame City in the care of soul cultivators. 

Besides this, nothing was mentioned about Alvin as if William was completely ignoring the topic and both of them know it wasn't like him at all. They finally understand the severity of this situation.

Alvin's face was ashen since he knew his father would never convey to William about Finn's special physique since both of their families were at odds. 

Now, Alvin finally took this task more seriously than ever and Lan was even more scared since he could tell by William's voice that he was sounded somewhat dissatisfied. 

Lan blamed all this on Alvin despite him being greedy himself. 

After blaming and arguing with each other for a while, they finally focused on the task at hand and that was to change Finn's foundation. 

Even Flame Master William told Lan to do it himself and provide Finn everything he needed before he searches for Sky Stealer with Alvin.

Lan quickly sent the other female Flame Captain to bring Finn, so he could start the process immediately. He even summons a bunch of flame guards and told them to monitor their information network and if that damn thief appeared again inform him post-hastily.

"I think you should head back to the 3rd-grade lands and keep a low profile, if that thief appeared again there are very high chances of him appearing there than any other place. We can easily corner him if someone like you is close by." Lan suggests with a stiff face. 

Alvin has no choice but to nod in affirmation since Lan's words make sense, "I'm leaving 1st and 2nd Grade Lands in Elder Lan's hands then. If he appeared in these lands please immediately contact me, and I'm leaving my sister here this time." 

"Fine, but make sure you won't get distracted this time!" Lan scoffed. 

Alvin's face fell, but he didn't retort since he knew Lan was still angry because of what happened. 

'I have to find out myself, just what's so special about you little thief!' Alvin thought with deep resentment. He never imagined a day like this would come when a flame general like him would send here to search for a petty thief!

Lan snorted and didn't say anything. He wasn't in the mood to even taunt Alvin anymore and keep waiting for Finn's arrival. 

'I can't stay in one place all the time, I have to move personally once I discovered that Sky Stealer position.' Lan mused with a grim face. 

At this moment, the door of the room where Lan and Alvin were waiting for Finn bang opened, and a masked flame guard entered with panic-sicken eyes.

Before Lan could berate the flame captain for her presumptuous entrance, she speaks in a panic tone, "Elder, the VIP guest has... gone missing!"

"WHAT!?" Lan and Alvin said at the same time as they quickly stand up from their seats. 

"When I reached there, Grey told me he has gone in seclusion for cultivation… but when we try to contact him through the formation, we found out the formation was not active in the first place.

"We go to the cultivation room ourselves but still didn't get any response after calling for him, and open the door to check on the VIP, but when we got in he was gone and only a paper slip was there!" She quickly told everything to Lan.

"What SLIP?!" Alvin asked in a stern tone as his dreadful aura leaked. 

She quickly handed a finger size paper slip to Lan.

Alvin and Lan's faces turned hideous as one could feel the suffocating murderous aura around them after they saw the paper slip.

There was only one sentence on it, 

"Dear Alvin, I'm boring the boy, if he isn't the thief I'll promise to treat him like an esteemed guest. Your dear friend, BLACK." In the end, there was a skull drawing!

"Those presumptuous Ghost Bastards!" Alvin cursed as he used a movement skill to depart. 

Lan quickly took out a circular formation plate with glittering blue color. He didn't have time to lock the entire city since it would take fifteen minutes, that's why he used this formation plate to examine the formations scattered all over the city. 

Lan knew if the kidnapper was a Ghost, they had little time, and he wanted to find that person's exact location, so he could quickly intervene.

But to Lan's dismay, he didn't find any suspicious movement at all and the city was peaceful. His complexion was pale as he was grinding his teeth in anger, this simply mean Finn was gone!

This was a slap to their face and if the news got out that someone has kidnapped a VIP of Flame City, the organization would become a laughingstock of entire middle-level lands!

"Go, order every flame guard to assemble and spread the news in every 1st-grade kingdom. 'Anyone who deals with the Nightmare Ghosts will be the Flame Pill enemy!'

"Have our men attack their dealing dens, I don't care what method they used, I want the VIP back and have some looked for their hideouts. They went too far this time!" Lan orders her with an ugly face. 

Even though it seemed the headquarters didn't care about Finn much but just the orders to give him everything he needs was enough to indicate they still care significantly much. 

Now if they learn those ghosts kidnapped him under his thumb, Lan would be in deep trouble. That's why he didn't hesitate to attack Nightmare Ghosts dealing dens, since they were the ones who 'provoke' them first!

Alvin was using the treasure to spreading his martial sense in a thousand-meter radius. He was so angry that his eyes were bloodshot; he was moving toward the city gates. 

Deep down he knew they were too late and if the kidnapper was the person who he thinks it is, then Finn was already gone and his martial sense also won't pick him!

'If those damn basters find out about Finn's special physique, they would never give him up! I should've never released the slave item, damn it!' Alvin was regretting his decision of freeing Finn from the slave item.

Now he was even thinking that person was especially targeting Finn because of the slave item and the moment he removed it they took him away!

What both Alvin and Lan didn't know was they were playing someone else's game altogether!

---

Two miles away north from the flame city, a silhouette was blurring past on a random avenue. This silhouette speed was almost equal to a peak Qi river cultivator as his every step covered a three-meter distance. 

One could vaguely see the silhouette was clad in black and a hood was covering his head. If one could see underneath that hood, there was an extremely handsome face of a young man. This was naturally Ace without disguise.

Ace escape the Flame City an hour ago when Alvin leave for Flame Palace. As for how he leaves without alerting those flame guards, simply he plunged the city wall with a rope!

He has the rope he bought from low-level lands and this simple method that only a formal mortal could think of. 

Ace precisely chose the most barren area of the city wall after studying the map he brought today, and use his eye skill to see the formation on the wall, and to his amazement, there were many flaws!

He remembered every one of them with his photographic memory and use those flaws to climb the wall and then do the same to descend and escape the city!