First Thievery!

In the middle of the night, the Pill markets of the outer region remained open and running like usual because the alchemy pill trade would never stop no matter the circumstances or time, especially for the cultivators. 

A pair of dark blue eyes coldly observed the brightly lit shop in a dark alley near Fatty Billy's shop.

Ace had been watching the shop for an hour now because he thought every shop closed at midnight, just like in other city areas.

Ace assumed it would be easy for him to invade the shop when it was closed, but he didn't imagine that the pill market in the middle of the night was just like the day. If he had known this, he would've made more adjustments to his plan.

'What to do now?' The current situation was quite depressing.

'I only have one day left. I have to do it, no matter what, I have to do it!' Ace encouraged himself and calmed his nerves. He looked around for new ideas, but nothing came to mind.

---

Inside Fatty Billy's shop,

Fatty Billy was in a sullen mood because yesterday, a 'rich kid' from the inner region (in his opinion) came to his shop and 'promised him' that he would come with his family and purchase his pills.

It was a golden opportunity for him to befriend a family in the inner region. But to his dismay, that brat never came, making him furious. He even beat his servants for no good reason.

It was already the middle of the night, and business was slow, so Billy was getting bored and sleepy. So he decided to take a nap like he always does around this time.

Billy didn't even have a shopkeeper because he didn't trust anyone but himself when it came to money. That's why he managed the shop himself and closed it in the middle of the day when business was slow.

Ace was silently waiting for any opening or chance in the alley. He was observing Billy's shop and his every move like a hawk. He had been there for some time now and saw that Billy was getting sluggish and even bobbing from time to time.

'Just a little more!' Ace thought with hope.

Suddenly, he saw Bill closing his eyes; this was the opportunity he had been waiting for. This was his only chance, and after waiting restlessly for five minutes, he finally made his move.

'Now or never!'

After taking a deep breath, Ace activated his stealth skill.

Ace felt a mysterious power, or Qi, circulate in his whole body, and his figure became transparent and slowly faded into the darkness.

After going in stealth, Ace activated his second-most important skill, the silent steps. Again, he felt the Qi, making his feet extremely light like feathers. 

Ace darted towards the shop like an arrow. He was extremely cautious of his surroundings. Holding his breath, he reached the shop's entrance and successfully entered it without alerting Billy.

Now that Ace was in the shop's light, if someone saw him with a little more focus, they would locate him because his stealth was not perfect.

As he enters the shop, fatty Billy's eyes are closed, and one can hear his snoring.

'This bastard fell asleep, good!' 

Ace went directly to the rear of the shop with his silent steps. He saw there was nothing besides a standard wall. One could never imagine that there was a secret door right here.

Ace stopped using his two skills after reaching the wall. One could see beads of sweat on his head. It was extremely tiring to use both skills simultaneously when he wasn't even a cultivator. He didn't have time to take a break and directly activate his third skill, True and False eyes.

Ace's pupils turned golden, and suddenly, gleaming gray vertical lines on the wall came into his view. By connecting these vertical lines, one could vaguely see the outline of a door.

Strangely, a little 'dark hole' existed between one part of these gray lines. It was right in the middle right corner of the hidden door.

Ace wasn't surprised by this dark hole because he knew this was a flaw in the array. So he placed his index finger directly on the dark hole position and, with a thought, activated the skill, Treasure Opening Hands, the first form of treasure opening 'Finger Key.'

This skill has five forms, and 'Finger Key' was the first.

Ace could barely master the second form with extreme difficulty. Maybe he was desperate to save Aline, so he didn't notice his unusual speed of learning these skills.

His index finger became metallic when the skill was active, and a mysterious pattern appeared on his whole index finger. The moment those patterns appeared on his finger, he inserted it into the dark hole like a key.

In his mind, information about this array structure appeared. Ace wasn't fazed by it because he already knew it would happen. He subconsciously moved his finger mysteriously after getting the information about this array.

'Click'

With a mild voice, the door formed in front of Ace.

'So that's how this skill feels when it works. It is simply magical!' Ace's forehead was filled with tiny beads of sweat, but there was evident elation on his pale face.

Since the 'illusion array' was already disabled, it didn't take long before he opened the 'lock array' with 'Finger Key.'

Ace hurriedly grabbed the door handle and slowly opened a brief gap, making no sound. Then, from a small crack, he peered inside.

Inside the hidden room, Ace saw those two warriors sleeping in the room's corner like logs. 'They're also sleeping. It looks like luck is on my side.'

Sleeping at this time was typical for those two guards because no one dared to steal from fatty Billy. The biggest reason for that was no one knew where his treasury was, and even if someone knew, they had to deal with this illusion and lock array first.

Because the moment someone touched it, the alarm would go off, and everyone would become alert. So that's why those two were sleeping without even caring for the security of this room.

However, Ace was unique because he had thievish skills from the system.

No one can imagine that with his true and false eyes, he could see flaws in an array, and even as he saw them, no one would've believed that he had a skill like Treasure Opening Hands, too. He was a perfect thief with these skills.

Ace slowly entered the room and saw those two muscle brains sleeping without even caring about their surroundings. He carefully passed them and activated his true and false eyes again.

After scanning the entire room, he finally saw what he was looking for.

'Oh, so that's where the treasury was hidden.' Ace saw a little jagged wall in the downright corner and hurriedly went there.

Ace reached the irregular wall with extreme caution and crouched there.

After confirming again that those two idiots were still snoring, he placed his two fingers on the empty, uneven corner of the wall.

Just like before, he saw gray lines forming a little door of a treasury, but this time, there were two dark holes between the gray lines. Ace places his two fingers on two dark spots, 'Treasure Opening Hands second form 'Two Fingers Keys.'

As soon as he activates the skill, his index and mid-fingers become metallic and enter dark holes like before. However, this time, a new type of pattern was formed on them. Like last time, he felt information about this lock array flowing into his brain.

Ace mysteriously moved his fingers. Each of his fingers was doing distinct movements. This was quite the scene to behold, and one could see the mysteries of Treasure Opening Hands' second form.

'tinggg'

A sharp noise resounded in the deathly silent room.

Ace was in a deep, trance-like state when he heard this sound. It wasn't that loud, but in this silence, it was loud. His complexion turned ashen, and he had a near heart attack. He quickly looked toward those two sleeping guards; they were still sleeping.

'It seems like they heard nothing—Sigh,' Ace sighed with relief.

Ace swiftly shifted his attention towards the little open door of the treasury. He lightly opens it, making no sounds. He saw the treasury was filled with shiny red Ruby coins.

Ace had never seen this much money before in his entire life. There were over 2000 Ruby Coins there. Billy believed that today, he would meet with a 'rich inner region family,' so he quickly shifted his assets here to show off his wealth and even bribed them to take him to the inner region.

However, that benefits Ace instead. There were over 4000 Ruby coins inside the treasury.

Ace grabbed the string bag from his back. After opening its string, he smoothly and excitedly collected ruby coins. After two minutes of hard work, he collected every single coin. He will not leave even a single coin for that swindler.

Now that he had collected all the coins in this little treasury, only two red bottles were left. Of course, Ace thought little of them because they seemed like all those other pill bottles inside this room. But little did he know that these two Pill Bottles were more valuable than fatty Billy's entire wealth!

After cleaning the treasury, Ace felt he was dreaming. He never imagined that one day he would steal from someone and steal this much!

It was all like an impossible fantasy.

Ace didn't dwindle on it for long since the mission was not complete yet and moved towards the shelves. He gradually filled his bag with all the pill bottles inside the room, which became pretty heavy.

It was packed with pill bottles and coins. Ace thought he was in an illusion. 'I'm rich!' he thought frantically.

Now that the thievery was finished, it was time to escape. So, Ace slowly left the hidden room while those two idiots were still sleeping.

'I wonder what that Swindler will do with them when he finds out about this foray.' Ace couldn't help but wonder.

He closes the treasury door like before with 'ting' the illusion and lock array active again.

Now was only the main door left between him and prosperity.

Ace's face was pale as a ghost, his breathing was rough, sweat dripped from his face, and his clothes were almost drenched.

This entire thievery put quite a strain on his little body, and if not for his willpower, he would've fallen here and now.

Ace gritted his teeth and activated his stealth again. With his current condition, he can only use this skill, and even that was like a flickering candle. He moved towards the main entrance as mildly as possible.

Now that his bag was full, he got slower, and his energy was almost depleted. If any misshape happens now, he'll be doomed!

Fatty Billy was still sleeping soundly and dreaming of the inner region when he heard the voice of his shop door open. He thought it was just a customer, so he lazily opened his eyes.

With his hazy eyes, he saw there was no customer at all. Instead, what he saw was a fully black-clad person. Even his face was entirely black!

Fatty was still sleepy, so he rubbed his eyes to see more clearly. But the black-clad person was the same, and he was now running.

Fatty Billy's face turned pale with fright, and he screamed at the top of his lungs,

"GHOSTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!"

His voice was so loud that nearby shop owners were also frightened and quickly came out of their shops to see what had happened. It was when they also saw a black-clad person running in the inner region's direction!

Their faces were the same as Billy's, and someone yelled in horror, "S-someone quickly find a shaman and ask for help. There is a loose ghost loitering around here. Go quickly!!!"

The whole outer region pill market was thrown into turmoil.

Fatty Billy was the most frightened of the bunch because he saw the ghost exiting his shop. He quickly proceeded towards his hidden room to get his guards for protection. He hurriedly waved his key card on the door and entered that room.

When he saw those two sleeping like idiots, his face turned dark as charcoal, and he became furious.

"You two lazy bastards, get up quick. There is a gho…."

Billy was about to say 'ghost' when he abruptly noticed the empty room. Yes, it was empty!

Fatty Billy felt the world spinning around him, and his vision turned dark. He dropped to the floor with a 'thud.'

At this moment, the two guards opened their drowsy eyes and saw Billy on the floor; his fat face was pale with no trace of blood.

They approached him and hurriedly asked, "Boss, what happened?"

"Look around and tell me what did you see?" Billy said in a raspy voice.

He was hoping for a miracle and thought he was so afraid of the ghost that his eyes were playing tricks on him. That's why he asked them for verification.

When those two guards heard his question, perplexed, they lazily turned around to look. They thought it was empty there. Yes, empty!

Their faces also became pale, and their knees turned into jelly. They also drop to the floor like Billy.

"Bo-boss, did y-y-you move the pills away?" The tall one asks Fatty in a shaky voice.

"I'll fucking move your mom now. I'll move your sister with her as well. I'll fucking move your entire family!" Fatty barked and started cursing like a rabid berserk dog.

Suddenly, Billy thought of something, and his heart skipped a beat. He stopped kicking those two idiots and ran toward the corner of the room. He quickly took out a red key card with a pattern on it.

Billy waves the key card to the uneven wall, and it opens, revealing the little treasury. Just as he was fearing, it is also empty!

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA GONE ALL GONE, EVERYTHING IS GONE!?!" Billy laughed like a lunatic as the fat on his body trembled up and down. His entire wealth has gone in smoke just like that.

"H-how the hell did this happen? Did you two were fucking each other when someone completely emptied the entire room??! Just w-who in the hell did it, damn it!" Fatty howled like a madman at those two idiots when he suddenly remembered that black ghost.

"Q-quickly, go now and find that black-clothed person for me. He's the one who stole my treasures! Go quick! I-if you two return empty hand, I'll fucking chop you in a million pieces, goooooooooooooooo!!!"

Billy shrilled angrily as his eyes were bloodshot. He nearly choked to death with anger!