Eternal Thief
chapter-673

Over a hundred miles away from the Servant Mountain City was the Official Mountain which was just over ten miles away from the Sun and Moon Ascension Gates.

In comparison to the Servant Mountain City, the Official Mountain City was like heaven as this place was filled with liveliness and joy. Furthermore, the people who live in the Official Mountain City were given permission to cultivate up to the Peak of Qi Gates Realm. Moreover, they were all provided with nine gate manual!

However, despite that, only ten percent among were able to ascend the ascension stairway.

The Sun and Moon Ascension Gates open every month, and anyone under the age of thirty can try to ascend the ascension stairway. There was no limit to tries as long as they were Official Union Members and could pay 100 Union Merits with every try.

The official members earn merits by cultivating Qi herbs, mining Qi ores, or Qi stones from the 'mortal domain.' This place was rich with all kinds of lodes and Qi soil, and all of it was under the control of the Union!

Although there were no major conflicts among the races here, the competition couldn't be avoided, especially when races like Devil, Demon, Hunter, Elves, and such were blessed with superior connate abilities.

Thereby, the arrogance of being superior couldn't be avoided, and there was a secret ranking among races in the Union that wasn't official. Still, everyone secretly agreed with it, and Union didn't stop them either.

This ranking was made according to the number of official members in the official mountain city as well as who controls the largest resources among the races.

Devils, demons, and hunters were still in the top three. However, humans' rank was much different than the ten continents. They were ranked ninth and fourth place was held by the elves!

If not for their talent in cultivation, they would've been dead last in this unofficial ranking.

Today happened to be the day when the Sun and Moon Ascension Gates would be opened, and like usual, thousands of youths from different races were gathered outside the colossal gates.

These youths were gathered together with their races, creating different large groups, and these groups occupied different areas outside the gates.

But the areas they occupied were different in their numbers like the devils were standing at the very front with over three thousand winged devils' youths. At the same time, demons were right behind them, with slightly fewer demons than them.

There were naturally a group of human youths which was only numbered 103.

Furthermore, this group was gathering behind two humans. One was a tall, handsome young man with a slim physique and long black hair. He was clad in a blue silk robe and gave off a solemn aura.

While the other was a dainty girl in a flowery pink dress with big bright eyes, and she had some resemblance with that handsome young man since they were both siblings.

As for why these two were at the very front, it was because they belonged to the Atlas Family of the Human Race, which was the number one family among the humans present in the Official Mountain City.

But the real reason why the Atlas family holds such status is that they held the honor of the household of the first human to ever became an official member as well as ascend the Ascension Stairway.

Every human in the mortal domain respects the Atlas family.

That's why these two siblings became the leaders of this human entourage despite the fact that it was their third try on the ascension stairway. However, this wasn't something humiliating since only genius among geniuses could ascend the accession stairways on the first try. Even the top three races agree with this fact.

If someone was able to ascend the stairway in their first ten tires, they already consider genius among the mortal domain.

Within this human entourage, at the very end, was standing a tall young man who was even more handsome than the youth from the Atlas family. However, there were many scars on his handsome face which made him stand out less.

He was wearing gray robes, and his long white hair and silvery eyes gave him a dreamy look while his eyes were sharp and astute. He has this inexpressible charm emitting from his person, which makes anyone feel closer to him.

This was naturally Ace, who had appeared here with his own face to take this test. It has been a long time since Ace wasn't wearing his mask in public and using some disguise.

The reason for his discarding the mask was that he was going to enter the union's true core area. He was quite sure they had high-level formations that could easily see through his mask especially when the ten-mile area around the ascension stairway was dyed black in the fate map.

That's why he didn't dare to approach this place while wearing his thousand-face mask, or he would be in huge trouble if, by any chance, those union guys found him.

However, he still has altered some of his unique facial features, like he has used a special ink to make his black hair white. At the same time, his eye color was the result of another special rare grade-6 herb called eye charmer water lily which could turn the eye color into anything the consumer desire for one year. This was its only function.

But Ace couldn't do anything about that natural charm of his, and despite creating scars on his face, many girls were glancing in his direction with a faint blush on their faces, and he could only smile wryly.

Still, since he was not using any formation or skill, he would not fall under the detection of anti-disguise formations. He had already tried such formation on himself before coming here.

As for his cultivation, he knew better than anyone. No one will be able to tell, and he would only appear mortal unless he showed his cultivation himself.

Right now, he was emitting faint undulation of a peak Nine Qi Gate Realm, which could only be sensed by the foundation realm cultivator or higher.

This method was something unique to Ace as he recently discovered it when he was still wandering in the endless sea.

Since no one can sense his real cultivation and they will be fooled by the mask fake cultivation, then what will happen if he himself shows the aura of a fake realm?

But it was easier said than done. It took him some time to figure it out, but with the thousand-face mask as a foundation and he has other skills that were created to achieve such an effect.

So, in the end, he managed to learn how to create a fake cultivation aura up to the late-stage foundation-building realm.

If another cultivator used an aura masking skill, they will be discovered by higher-level cultivators. But Ace can't because after he opened the hidden part of his cultivation technique, no one ever discovered his true cultivation, so no matter what others try, his cultivation would appear what he was showing it to be.

Lastly, Ace's true motive was never to stay in the union but to find a way to leave it, and the moment he managed to infiltrate into the core area, he would start right away!

At this moment, a solemn ethereal voice rang, drawing everyone's attention.

"Attention! The Sun and Moon Ascension Gates are about to open!"