Eternal Thief

Cloaked within the Lawless Darkness, which was using his Primordial Spirit Qi at a high speed despite comprehending his order to a deeper level, Ace entered the mysterious exit that should lead inside the Half-Independent World or Central Repository.

The moment Ace crossed the boundary, he felt like he had passed through a thin membrane of water, and everything changed again, with the chaotic spatial tunnel vanishing instantly!

The next moment, Ace’s figure emerged silently into a sealed chamber, and the first thing he noticed was the stillness.

It wasn’t the eerie stillness of the Lower Grave Strata, nor the chaotic silence of the spatial tunnel. This was something far more absolute, as if even sound itself had been regulated and suppressed.

’This should be the Terminal No.23!’

Ace’s gaze sharpened as he took in his surroundings, and he knew he had unexpectedly entered a structure, which was somewhat strange given that this was a world.

A platform floated beneath his feet, formed from a dark, glass-like substance that seemed to seamlessly merge with his darkened form. Moreover, the surface was smooth, almost unnaturally so, with faint lines of pale-gray energy flowing beneath it like veins.

“System, can you close the spatial passage now since I’m already here? Keeping it open for a minute or two won’t matter.”

Ace ordered, and the next moment, the spatial passage behind him began to seal. He nodded in satisfaction. He didn’t want anyone else to follow him, even if they would be walking into their deaths, but it still would trigger the unknown defenses of this place.

Right at that moment, something caught Ace’s attention. The structure in front of him. He noticed it was not a simple gateway or chamber; instead, it was a colossal construct embedded in the fabric of this world.

A towering hexagonal frame stood before him, easily over thirty meters tall, its edges formed from translucent crystalline material that pulsed with dim, controlled light.

Within that frame, a stabilized spatial membrane shimmered faintly, its surface layered with countless microscopic runic patterns that continuously shifted and rearranged themselves.

At the center of the structure, a hollow aperture existed, the exact point where the spatial pathway connected. This was the delivery node; the place from which treasures were sent outward to the Ninth Bone Legion’s treasury.

Ace’s pupils contracted slightly because even with his current perception, he couldn’t fully comprehend the complexity of the structure before him.

The runes embedded within it were layered, interlocked, and endlessly cycling, and he instantly realized this wasn’t just a terminal but was a lock terminal of the Quasi-Transcendent Grade Master Lock!

A faint realization surfaced in his mind, ’Each treasury exchange point is just an extension of these terminals! This is really an astounding treasure. Just who could have created it and left it here like this? What kind of background does the Undead Cradle have, and why is only the Corpse Race here?’

Ace had more questions, but he didn’t have time to waste as his Primordial Spirit Qi was running out, and he quickly needed to move.

He slowly turned, and in that instant, his entire perception froze because for the first time since entering this place, genuine shock surfaced in his eyes as he saw something he hadn’t seen in his entire life!

Because what lay beyond the terminal was not a chamber, corridor, or even a simple space, but a vast, boundless vault the size of a small world unfolded, and he stood at its edge, completely still!

The ground in front of him seemed to extend endlessly, formed from that same dark crystalline material, smooth and reflective like a frozen ocean. But unlike any natural world, this place had no horizon in the traditional sense.

Because there was no sky, instead the entire ’sky’ above was a colossal dome. A perfectly enclosed structure made from an unknown crystalline substance that stretched infinitely outward, curving overhead like the inside of a sealed sphere.

That dome shimmered faintly with layered translucence, and embedded within it were a dozen structures; to be exact, eighty-one in total.

Ace’s gaze slowly swept across them, and he instantly understood that the eighty-one structures were none other than massive terminals identical to the one behind him, embedded directly into the inner surface of the dome and arranged in a vast circular pattern.

Each one pulsed faintly with ethereal light, and each one sealed and seemed inaccessible. Moreover, they were positioned like fixed nodes in a grand formation, evenly spaced, forming a perfect, symmetrical array.

Ace’s mind stirred, ’Eighty-one terminals, meaning eighty-one lock nodes, and access points. Each one should be connected to a different location of the Lower Grave Strata. Most importantly, each should be governed by the independent rules of this treasure. Now I understand why unlocking the entire master lock would’ve caused unknown consequences!’

At this moment, his gaze lowered slowly, and that’s when he saw it!

At the very center of this world-vault suspended in midair was something far more astonishing.

A vast ethereal structure, shaped as a colossal honeycomb with layer upon layer of perfectly aligned hexagonal cells extended outward in all directions, forming a three-dimensional lattice that floated silently in the center of the world.

Each honeycomb was massive, large enough to house entire stockpiles of treasures, and every single one was sealed with a translucent barrier, which covered each hexagonal cell, shimmering faintly like a thin membrane of condensed Qi.

Behind those barriers were countless items, and each one suspended in perfect stillness, as if time itself had been paused within each cell.

Ace’s breath slowed as he realized this was the true appearance of the Central Repository. There were no scattered vaults or divided storage, but a single, unified system, built on the perfect structure of order and control.

But then something else caught his attention. Not all the combs were sealed, making Ace’s eyes narrow slightly, because among the countless glowing hexagonal cells, some were different, with their translucent barriers missing or gone completely.

At first glance, they appeared identical to the others, but upon closer inspection, they were empty and hollow, without any treasures, just vacant space.

Ace’s mind turned sharp instantly, ’Those are probably extracted slots, which means the items that have already been taken, and delivered through the terminals!’