After four hours, Ace open his tightly closed eyes.
He had successfully stabilized his realm at the peak of Heavenly Gates's realm. He has finally opened the last Heavenly Self Gate, The Gate of Heart.
He could feel that his whole body had become lighter. The Heavenly Qi was pouring in his whole body meridians smoothly like a stream of a river. The opening of meridians was the sign of the Gate of Heart. His other senses were now ever sharper.
While assimilating the Gate of heart, he also started to absorb the Heavenly Qi in his meridians.
It was the middle of the night and the city was silent. But the weather was the whole other story outside were raining cats and dogs. One could hear the deep rumbling noises of the lightning, now and then.
Outside of the inn where Ace was staying. The entrance was already surrounded by many guards. On the avenue, two luxurious horse carriages were moving. Because of the weather Ace didn't notice this disturbance at all.
Dulce chose to strike now specific for this reason, 'He would never saw it coming.'
She heard quite some stories about him and she knew he was very skilled at escaping. That's why she bought all these elite guards.
These luxurious horse carriages stopped just before the entrance of the Inn. There were many guards around the carriages but only one carriage belonged to the Dulce whereas the others belonged to the City Lord. They were here for the same purpose and that was to capture Ace alive. Dulce was very interested in his skills just like Asher.
Ace was still training in his room, he indeed didn't notice all the commotion because of the weather but he was only staying on the second floor of the Inn.
Since he had just breakthrough he was in peak condition, the moment he felt a little bit of movement on the first floor with his keen soul senses. The very moment he active his heavenly sense to see what was happening when he saw all those guards outside at the entrance. He immediately woke up and rush toward Eva's room.
"They're here for us!" Ace concludes after seeing all those guards because when he active his Heavenly Sense he felt two familiar soul signatures.
This 'Soul Signature'was an innate active skill like soul sense, he could record a person's special soul aura or soul signature with his heavenly sense the moment he meets them or they were in his range of soul sense. He gained this special ability when he formed the yellow wind core. He found out about this ability this very morning when he used his Heavenly Sense on Shila and steal her storage bag.
That's why the moment he senses two of the familiar soul signatures he immediately knows they were here for him. His heavenly sense was locked on the first floor. He saw a bald man and four blacked caped men were coming towards the second floor at high speed. They will be here in one or two minutes.
"We have to escape before they reached here." Ace didn't even knock on Eva's room and with a shake of his hand the door locked was broken easily.
Eva was cultivating when she here the BANG of the broken lock. She was jolt awaken by it and nearly escaped a serious injury. This invokes her killing intent and she was going to attack the person who was responsible for it.
But when she saw it was Ace and he has a grave expression on his face, she swallowed her anger and asked, "What happened? Don't you know when someone was in a deep state of cultivation they can't be disturbed or the consequences would be too severe?"
"I'm sorry, but I have to do this because someone is coming for us and they're strong, maybe even in the Qi Foundation realm." Ace said gravely and he was feeling guilty for doing this but the situation was not in their favor right now so he can only apologize to her and make it up to her later.
Eva's face turned pale after she hears him, she knows too well just how powerful Ace's senses were. She quickly stood up and said, "We should escape from this window."
Ace nodded his head in agreement and open the window of Eva's room. Some guards were standing outside but if they want to leave those guards can do nothing but helplessly watch them leave safely.
Ace and Eva were now at the peak of the Qi Gates Realm so the jump from the second floor was nothing but an ant bit to them with their strong bodies. Before jumping both of them active their stealth skills.
Baldy with the other four black-caped men reached the second floor and directly go towards Ace's room. But when they reach his room it was empty.
"That bastard escape again!" said one of the black cape men, it was the voice of Rylan.
"Escaped?" Baldy sneers in contempt hearing Rylan's words.
"You lowly peasant didn't know just how powerful is a Kingdom-level power. Didn't Princess find out where that rat was hiding in an hour? So, just shut the hell up and only followed the order that was given to you by Princess." Badly said in a cold voice and begins to check the other rooms.
The silent Inn becomes very noisy because Dulce has given the order to other guards, "Turn this entire Inn upside down and capture that little thief no matter the cost." Even City Lord was with her so how could anyone dare to disobey her order.
When everyone was searching for the thief inside the Inn. The thief has already escaped the parameter of guards.
Ace and Eva had only escaped forty meters when they bumped into a strange invisible barrier. The moment they contacted the invisible barrier it starts to shine like a sun. The dark rainy sky around the Inn turns into a day because of that intense light.
Ace's face change color from white to blue and he wanted to swear badly. He didn't know what this strange barrier was but he does know that he was traped and in a deep crisis. It was his first time encountering this kind of grave situation.
From the stars of his journey four months ago he always succeeds in his mission and escaped without a scratch. He unknowingly becomes arrogant and careless. He always thought that he could escape anything with help of his skills and system until now.
No matter what skill he used he can't even find a hole in that barrier like he always does after using his True & False eyes skill. It was because the skilled efficiency was not high enough or the skill itself was not enough.
This time Ace panic. He finally has a taste of despair and his hands start to shake a little. It was his first time after becoming a cultivator that he loses his calm like this. "Is this the end?" He mumbles softly.
Ace's mind was in a mess when he felt a warm softness on his trembling hand. He looked beside him Eva was holding his hand tightly and looking in his eyes as she says gently, "We'll escape from here and after that, you have to go on shopping with me, alright?"
Eva's gentle voice awake him from his panic state and he calms down a great deal. He couldn't help but feel blessed to have someone like her beside him in this situation. 'If there is a next time I'll not make this kind of mistake.' He made an oath in his heart.
At this time, he suddenly remembers a black face. He remembered a man named Coal, and his words. {"Remember boy never get arrogant no matter what or when someone stronger than you tamper on you like an ant, you will never be able to stand again."}
(Note: He met him in the outer region weapon market.)
Ace takes a deep breath and completely calms down. He finally understands the meaning of those words.
He was about to look for an escape route when a voice rang in the vacancy. Now because of the barrier's light, everyone could see clearly. And Ace only now notice the rain was not falling in the area around the Inn as well.
"What a touching Scene I want to 'Cry'!" A sliver of ridicule could be felt in this beautiful voice.
Ace and Eva turned around and saw the bold and powerful soldiers standing outside the Inn. Of course, the most striking were the two, horse carriages.
"Who are you and what do want with us?" Ace asked while he was scanning the invisible barrier with his heavenly sense. He wanted to buy some time by talking with this girl.
He was scanning the invisible barrier when he heard the system voice inside his mind,
"[Host has been trapped inside a {Lowest-Grade Formation Barrier}. With Host's current level of power, it is impossible to break this formation.]
[The system suggests: To find the power source of the formation or the formation plate that is controlling the formation. The system has already deducted 20 TP on its own since Host is busy.]"
[Thief Points (TP): 670]