Chapter 530

Chapter 394: Thief

The thief’s movements were so light and graceful, even more perfect than the most excellent tightrope walkers the audience had ever seen, especially considering they were performed while wearing such elaborate formal wear. The spectators couldn’t help but gasp in admiration at the thief’s series of actions. Meanwhile, Maximus, seeing that his men couldn’t catch the thief, grew increasingly anxious.

Desperate, Maximus raised his hand and aimed at the thief, who had just narrowly avoided one round of capture and hadn’t yet regained their footing. A barrage of tiny water arrows shot out from his sleeve. These arrows were numerous and nearly transparent due to being made of water, making them extremely hard to detect; even the front-row audience members couldn’t see them.

However, even with such arrows, the thief noticed and reacted at the last moment, performing a large sidestep to avoid most of the incoming water arrows. Nevertheless, two water arrows struck the thief’s forearm, piercing through it.

Struck, the thief trembled slightly, then quickly regained balance. Just as Maximus was about to sh**t more water arrows, the thief pulled out a test tube containing dark red liquid from their body and smashed it onto the deck. In an instant, the dark red smoke burst open, almost enveloping the entire bow of the ship.

As the dark red mist spread, the glow of the Deep Blue Heart vanished once again. Those on the bow could no longer see their surroundings clearly; everything within their sight turned dark red.

“Cough… This smoke is…”

Coughing, Maximus tried to wave away the smoke with his hand, but it was futile. He then sensed that the dark red smoke was very humid, primarily composed of some kind of vapor. He attempted to manipulate this vapor to disperse the other components, but found it useless.

Maximus realized that although the primary component of the smoke was vapor, it wasn’t ordinary water. Besides the obvious “Cup,” there was also some form of spirituality mixed in. This dark spirituality intertwined with the vapor not only obstructed his operations but also imbued the entire dark red mist with wind-resistant properties, dispersing but not dissipating under the sea breeze.

As an auxiliary “Lamp” spirit, Maximus immediately recognized this spirituality—it was “Shadow.” This dark red mist was a product of “Cup” and “Shadow” spirits mixing! He couldn’t dispel the mist because he couldn’t control the “Shadow.”

Unable to dispel the dark red mist, Maximus couldn’t locate the thief. His anxiety escalated further. He immediately grabbed a Breath Detection Sigil from his pouch and stuck it on himself, greatly enhancing his sense of smell to detect the thief’s location. However, even after applying the sigil, he still couldn’t smell anyone else besides his own men; the thief had undergone odor processing!

Understanding how to remove odors, create dual-spirituality mist, and mask spiritual traces of the Deep Blue Heart, coupled with extraordinary abilities far beyond a normal person, Thief K was clearly a seasoned Extraordinary Being!

Realizing this, Maximus deeply regretted his initial dismissal of the warning letter.

The persistent dark red mist diffused throughout the bow, not only preventing those at the bow from seeing their surroundings but also completely hiding what was happening inside from those outside. Seizing this opportunity, the thief leaped overboard from the railing, unseen by anyone.

The thief’s figure plunged out of the billowing smoke, falling along the towering steel hull towards the sea. Halfway down, a mysterious force surged through her body, causing invisible special currents to run through her. These currents endowed the thief with a unique property—magnetism.

Under the influence of these electromagnetic currents, the thief’s falling body generated a strong attraction to the steel hull. The thief was rapidly pulled toward the hull, lying horizontally against it. Due to the potential energy from the fall, she slid down for quite some time before finally stopping. After stopping, she was only about seven or eight meters above the turbulent sea.

Since the thief was attracted to a position near the bottom of the hull, twenty meters away from the deck and very close to the sea, the massive waves caused by the cruise ship’s movement completely covered the sound of the thief colliding with and sliding against the hull. People on the deck couldn’t hear any unusual noises.

Moreover, due to the ship’s shape, which is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, people on the bow couldn’t see the thief even if they leaned over the railing due to the angle. All they could see was the vast sea.

Using the magnetic force, the thief stabilized herself at the bottom of the hull. Then, she began to rise, crawling up the ninety-degree steel hull using all four limbs, moving like a cat towards the stern. She ran swiftly towards the nearest porthole. As the thief approached the porthole, the cabin door automatically opened, providing her access to the interior.

Without hesitation, the thief, climbing at high speed on the ship’s wall, directly entered the porthole that had been left open for her. After entering the porthole, the man waiting in the cabin immediately closed the porthole behind her. The thief struggled to stand up and then sighed deeply.

“Huh… I did pretty well, Miss Dorothea.”

“Yes, you did great. But we’re short on time, you need to get upstairs quickly.”

After closing the porthole, the man turned to the thief and said, pointing to a corner where a pile of items lay.

Among these items, the most noticeable was a pale gold portable evening gown and high heels. Next to them was a basin of hot water and cosmetics. Seeing this, the thief handed the Deep Blue Heart to the man beside her and removed her half-mask butterfly face covering. She took a bottle of makeup remover from the basin, wiped her face with a cloth, revealing a complexion paler than usual, though slightly darker than normal.

After removing the thick makeup, the thief took off her hat, untied her hair, and let her wavy brown-black hair cascade down like a waterfall. Thief K began to revert to her identity as a college student at Crown University.

Nephneis skillfully removed her disguise, while the man, acting as Dorothea’s zombie puppet, silently examined the huge blue gemstone in his hand.

On the chaotic bow of the ship, Dorothea admired the dimmed blue gemstone through the zombie puppet’s perspective, then whispered to herself:

“The Abyss Cult’s treasure, a gemstone that can summon the bloodline of the Abyss Serpent—the Deep Blue Heart. Finally, I have it.”