To the west of the Red-Mountain City few miles away was the biggest forest of the land of cities, the Moon Forest.
Moon Forest was divided into outer, inner, and core regions.
Most mortals and low-level cultivators only travel between the outer region of the moon forest and no one dare to vent any deeper.
Because in the inner region the weakest demonic beast was the peak of the Qi Gates Realm and the core region was the deadliest!
Right at the moment, two silhouettes were moving in the outer region of the moon forest at fast speed on the dirt road between trees. From the direction, they were going towards the inner region of the moon forest.
It will still take them one to two months before they'll reach the inner region with their current speed.
These two silhouettes were obviously Ace and Mathies.
After they escape from Dulce's trap, fleeing the city was child play for both.
Ace didn't want to stay in the city any longer because he knew Dulce would definitely going to search for him like a mad bitch. After all, he has stolen all her treasures and he was feeling quite good about it there was not a sliver of guilt in his heart.
Mathies was moving right beside Ace and was astonished to see that he can match evenly with his Qi Foundation realm speed with ease. He was having a hard time accepting it,
'His parents definitely left some amazing techniques and skills or even those legendary treasures for him.' He thought as a peculiar light flashed past his eyes.
Mathies knows better than anyone just how much powerful Ace's parents were when he met them all those years ago. Certainly, they can't leave scraps for their own child, right?
But little did he know that they truly didn't leave anything for him and what he was today all because of that mysterious system.
They fled for six hours and finally have a sigh of relief, they were finally far away from the city and Dulce.
Ace was panting right now because he has killed almost all the elite's guards and even battel with a Qi foundation realm expert like Dulce, who was stronger than anyone because of her Six Qi Gates Foundation.
And after he escaped from the city he was continuously using hi Qi for running now he was exhausted. If he didn't have opened the four gates of darkness he would be long run out of Qi.
But he was marvel at his Qi recovery rate, that Dark Void1 inside his abdominal was continuously sucking the Qi of heaven and converting it into HD-Qi.
Ace guessed that he could recover in an hour with this speed of recovery and thanked the system for this powerful reward.
Ace was just deep in thought while catching his breath, and was just about to release Eva from his thief's space when he felt a cold sensation from behind and a chill run down his spine. He felt goosebumps rising all over his body and his soul sense starts to ring like bells it was a warning that he was in grave danger.
He didn't have time to turn around to see the situation, Ace quickly react and try to dodge whatever was coming with a sidestep but he was too late and a sharp cold blade pierce through this left shoulder blade.
His momentary response saves his heart from getting pierced but he still gets wounded.
Strong Qi that was coming from the cold blade was pumping into his body through the wound, if not for his HD-Qi uniqueness his body might've exploded from the powerful Qi.
Ace calms his mind and ignores the throbbing pain coming from the wound and uses the silent step to escape the blade. His HD-Qi was still fighting with the foreign Qi inside his body.
To Ace's astonishment the next moment, the Dark Void began to suck the foreign Qi and the Qi turns into HD-Qi. This was another ability of the Dark Void that he didn't know and wonder if this mysterious void has more uses.
Ace didn't have time to reflect over Dark Void because he heard an unexpected voice when he escapes the blade and turns around. He knew who this voice belongs to the moment he heard it.
When Ace turns around he saw Mathies was holding a long sword with his blood was dripping on the ground from its blade. He saw Mathies was looking at him in shock and dread.
"H-h...how did you escape the outburst of the Qi Foundation realm 'Manifestation Qi? N-no a body of Qi Gates Cultivator can't hold against it." Mathies said while shuttering as he looked at Ace with horror as if he was seeing a ghost.
Ace's heart turns cold the moment he saw Mathies was holding the weapon and when he heard Mathies's words.
He finally understands that he has just escaped certain death because of the HD-Qi and Dark Void, if even one of them were missing he would be a cold corpse right now.
Actually, even if he didn't have any of them he would still be able to expel the Qi with Heavenly Qi. It was just that he didn't encounter and fight with the Qi Foundation realm expert so his knowledge was deficient.
"Why did you sneak attack me? I thought you were with me?" Ace asked coldly, rage was bubbling up inside him.
He wanted to know just why this old guy did this. He didn't think that Mathies would've harbor ill-intention towards him so his guard was down and he didn't use his full soul sense on him either that time because of the exhaustion. But the moment Mathies saw the opening he attacked with a sure-kill move.
Mathies knows his cover was blown and he loses his only chance to strike a fatal blow. He calmed his wildly beating heart and said with a deep sigh, "When I first saw your portrait I was quite shocked back then, and finally realized that you were still in the city all these years. At that time, I want to genuinely find you and tell you about your parents. I want to repay the graciousness for saving my life.
"However, I can't find you just like last time and think this time you really left the city to save your life. I blame myself for my incompetence. But the after two days that vixen comes and start a massacre she killed my whole family, my wife, children, grandchildren…" Killing intent starts to emit from Mathies's eyes as he mentions his family.
"I wanted to kill that whore entire family to avenge my family but what can a pawn like me do? We all lived in the land of cities the lowest level lands and all the upper-level lands think of us as mere slaves, they didn't even allow us to possess proper resources to become powerful. Our destiny was in their hands the moment we were born here!
"I lose all the hope and become an empty husk until I saw you doing all those miraculous things. I saw hope to avenge my family. You even opened a storage ring and broke a legend. Then it comes to my mind that it was because of you that all my family was dead and because of you my city has become rubble." He stair venomously at Ace.
"So, I decided to kill you and take your secret for myself. But you were just too bizarre and I was uncertain of success. I waited for the perfect moment and finally find an opening a moment ago when you were exhausted. But who could've thought that even my sneak attack wasn't able to kill you!" Mathies said with frustration in his voice.
Mathies was very confident in his skills but Ace has counter it and now he has to fight him head-on. But he was not discouraged like an old fox because he thought that Ace was still fighting with his Qi that he released with his attack and was in a weak state. And after his big and hateful speech, he would definitely hesitate to attack him.
After listening to Mathies reason Ace sighed, he thinks if he was in Mathies position he would definitely hate the person who was responsible for his misery. But Ace didn't feel any grief at all from Mathies soul what he felt was greed, envy, desire… these kinds of emotions that he felt from Dulce, Grace, Asher, …
'He wants my secret just like others but his acting skill is top-notch though. If I didn't have my soul sense, even I would've believed him.' Ace mocked, if what Mathies says was all true he would've let him go.
But he has doubts about him from the start when he gave him incomplete information about his parents and after he senses his true feeling and heard his opposite words, he concludes,
'This guy is an old fox through and through and far more dangerous than that vixen!'