The moment the sword heart phantom appeared, Ace's aura instantly turned sharp, just like a sword, and he instantly knew he had a breakthrough in sword heart!
The sword phantom became more extensive and vivid, almost like a real sword, and anyone with a weaker will lose their mind just by looking at his sword heart. It was a huge step and progress in his path of the sword, and Ace knew it was all thanks to the Magister of Destruction.
At this moment, a system notification echoed in his mind,
[Congratulations, host, for comprehending the Sword Law's 1st Mystic Ability: Sword Heart to Advanced Stage (99% Authority (Absolute Limit))]
[Congratulations, Host! You have successfully merged the Law of Destruction with your Inner World. Your World Seed has successfully transformed into the Primordial World of Darkness (Nascent State)!]
[Congratulations, Host, you have advanced to the Nascent Primordial World (8%) Realm/Ascension Master (1-Star)!]
-(Previous/New) Reward(s):
-1. 25,000,000 Thief Points (Previous)
-2. 50,000,000 Thief Points (NEW)
-3. Night Collapse Travesty (Taboo Spell)
-4. Primordial World Suppression (Taboo Spell)
[Thief Point(s): 97,100,000]
[Innate Soul Ability, Soul Signature has evolved into Innate Spirit Ability, Achieve of Thief!] (Previous)
-Achieve of Thief (Innate Spirit Ability): Heaven's Stealer never forgets!
-Ability (1): Signature Achieves (Passive)
-Description: Record soul/martial/spiritual signatures automatically as long as they are exposed to the user without any limit!
-Ability (2): Signature Anamnesis (Passive)
-Description: Categorizes signatures by power grades, species, and encounters while continuing to refresh the Signature Achieves. It also allows the user to instantly recognize the signature owner, even if under disguise!
-Limitation: Signature Anamnesis won't work on existence above Law State!
-Ability (3): Signature Imitator (Active)
-Description: Able to imitate any Signatures stored in Signature Achieves!
[Innate Soul Ability, Soul Probing has evolved into Innate Spirit Ability, Thievish Probe!] (NEW)
-Thievish Probe: (innate Spirit Ability): Nothing can be hidden from Heaven's Stealer!
-Ability description (Active): Able to probe specific memories in greater detail, even piecing together fragmented or suppressed ones without leaving any traces or detectable by laws. The stronger the user and the weaker the target's mental defenses, the more complete the memories.
-Limitation: Chance of being discovered and failure on cultivators with two realms above the user!
[Host status has been updated!]
Meanwhile, Ace was undergoing massive changes; the Runic King Crown Palace completely sealed off the Vindictive Rigid Valley within an hour after Jake's group escaped from the Heavenly Punishment!
This sudden action of the Runic King Crown Palace made many astounded and some unhappy, especially those who knew about the hidden treasures in the valley.
However, this time, it wasn't just the Runic Alchemy City or the son of a Runic Duke and a few Runic Marquises; it was the Runic King Crown Palace itself that had made its move.
So, no matter who or how many objects, they didn't dare to protest. The gravity of the situation was so severe that the Runic King Crown Palace dispatched a Runic Duke with some hidden experts of the palace, which shocked many.
No one knew what could've provoked the Runic King Crown Palace, but everything had their conjectures, and they knew it was related to the Vindictive Rigid Valley.
But then another rumor began to spread: a 9-Star Ascension Lord, who was gone deep in the valley, had personally witnessed an apocalyptic sight of a Heavenly Law Tribulation, and it was so terrifying that it covered half of the valley.
At first, no one believed in such rumors, but then more and more news of missing cultivators in the valley started to spread, and people started to believe in this terrifying Heavenly Tribulation and started to connect the actions of the Runic King Crown Palace to this incident.
Furthermore, new questions started to rise in everyone's mind: who could have triggered such a Heavenly Tribulation? Could it be one of those elusive existence of the Runic King Crown Palace?
Then another rumor spread that this heavenly law tribulation was to ascend into the Ascension King Realm, which instantly aroused everyone's interest, including those powerful forces, both in light and dark alike.
The Ascension King Realm was a huge deal, especially for those six ruling powers of the Mortal Ascension Heaven, and if a new Ascension King were, the status quo would change drastically.
Everyone's eyes and ears were on the Vindictive Rigid Valley and how the Runic King Crown Palace would investigate it. Everyone wanted to know who this mysterious expert was and if he had succeeded or failed to overcome his tribulation.
On the other hand, Leia, after escaping with Jake's group, quickly excused herself and teleported into the King's Quill of the Runic Formation City, which was also the strongest sect city among the three sect cities of the Runic King Palace.
She instantly headed towards the King's Quill disciples area and stopped in front of a disciple chamber before tapping her finger on the door in a peculiar rhythm and waiting.
Thereupon, the door opened, and Leia entered without hesitation. The next moment, the door was closed, and another barrier covered the entire chamber.
Leia wasn't bothered by this and quickly headed towards the workshop. Upon entering it, she saw an average male, seemingly in his thirties, holding a runic brush and drawing symbols on the runic plate.
The man didn't avert his eyes from the runic plate as if he was deeply immersed in his work, but it wasn't the case as he clearly knew about Leia's presence.
He spoke impassively, "I've heard about the Vindictive Rigid Valley from Raveneye. The plan is in disarray." He was none other than Raven, who was in disguise.
Leia pursed her lips, clearly frustrated, but didn't retort since Raven's words weren't wrong. But what made her vexed was this happened under her watch, and this was her task to begin with, which meant she failed for the first time!
"We couldn't predict such a variable to appear suddenly. There was nothing I could've done. But I'll take full responsibility!" Leia stated in a cold tone.
The brush in Raven's hand halted momentarily before he continued, saying, "I'm not blaming you. Who was it?"
Leia shook her head, "I don't know, he was hiding his appearance. But he seemed to know about a secret passage which wasn't described on the map. He directly appeared from a blind spot in the formation, and then it was over.
"But from what I could tell, he didn't want to harm Jake, for he gave us warning before he triggered the Heavenly Tribulation, and I can confirm it was a King Realm one. I'm also sure he wasn't part of Runic King Crown Palace and probably not an evil cultivator."
"I'm really curious about whom this person is and how he knew about another passage while we had the map. Furthermore, we've been planning this for hundreds of years and even use the Runic Flame Duke to secure the ancient remnant.
"Yet, this person seemed ahead of us, and I'm sure there wasn't another map in existence. The only people who knew about the Fruit were the Runic Flame Duke, me, you, and Raveneye until we spread the news.
"We also carefully calculated the time so no one powerful reached it before we completed our objective. Runic King Crown Palace won't let someone above Ascension Lord use teleportation channels leading directly to their territory. "Now, unless the most powerful formation of the Mortal Ascension Heaven isn't working, which we both know is impossible, I couldn't think of any other reason but of betrayal!" Raven coldly looked at Ravencrown.
Ravencrown eyes narrowed as she said, "Who are you suspecting?"
"I won't suspect any of us; the only possibility is Runic Flame Duke had trusted someone he shouldn't have, and now our plan is completely ruined. It would be troublesome to proceed further without that fruit, and it was supposed to be ours!" A hint of killing intent surfaced in Raven's eyes with rage.
"What do you want to do?" Ravencrown knew Raven's obsessive and petty personality, so she knew he would retaliate. Raven pulled an icy smile as he ordered, "I want you to kill Jake and make it look like the 'mastermind' the Nether Blood Fiend King Cult was behind everything! This is the only way to put everything back on track. I'll have Raveneye bring back the Bloody Moon Patriarch's spiritual traces. You should know what to do from there, right?"
Ravencrown fell into silence for a moment before she nodded in agreement, "Consider it done!"