A Demon’s Paradise - Volume 1 Chapter 9 Heist

After putting the book on rare materials back where it was, Xia Moyin walked out of the room, yawning.

She’d been holed up in that room for nearly nine hours, the time going from one in the afternoon to ten at night. There were barely any people still in the library, though it was open at all hours, whether it was day or night.

She was tired, and ready to crash. Her stint in the library was extremely rewarding, though it completely drained her mentally. The new information was way too much for her to contemplate in just a few hours, and she wasn’t physically well enough to try her hand at forcefully absorbing it.

She left the library, going back to the inn. It wouldn’t hold the next thing she needed, a map of the Imperial Palace.

As soon as she got to her room, she crashed, turning into a brick the moment her head hit the pillows and the cover was on her back.

…..

Two nights later, Xia Moyin was sitting on top of the treasury, contemplating her next move. The night was cool and dark, no moon in the sky to illuminate her hiding spot.

She’d spent the last two night scouting out the Royal Treasury, getting a general idea of where everything was and evaluating just how protected it was. The treasury was large and expansive, five stories of treasure stuffed into one building.

It was locked up like Fort Knox, to say the least.

There were little to no windows and only three entrances, each with at least five guards watching it at all times. The outside was made of some sort of gray stone, almost completely resistant to attacks. There were nearly five hundred guards on the outer perimeter, and another two hundred prowling the halls, not including any golems or protectors on the inside. Protective spells and traps were everywhere, there to trap, or kill, a thief.

Xia Moyin sighed, steeling her nerves. To infiltrate the treasury, even using the Killer Lizard mask, would be difficult, especially since she didn’t have any sort of cultivation. She had chosen this night for the heist, and now wasn’t the time to be psyching herself out.

She was sitting on the roof of the treasury, looking down on the western entrance. Right beneath where she was sitting there were three guards standing next to the door, with two more in the trees not far from it.

Their break was going to start at any moment, in which there would be about half a second for her to slip inside.

Xia Moyin crawled her way to the edge of the roof, her fingers digging into the ceiling and stabilizing herself, getting ready to start climbing. Her claws were just sharp and long enough to dig into the roof, but not enough to make a major indention.

The Killer Lizard mask made her completely invisible and concealed her presence, however, it didn’t change the fact that she left behind clues to wherever she was. She still had to be careful so she wouldn’t get caught.

A long moment passed as she held her breath, ready to start the moment the guards hinted that their break was about to start. One second passed, then another, and another. Each one felt like hours, dragging past.

The guard on the left took one step forward, and the one on the right followed, with the third not too far behind. The guards hidden in the trees disappeared as they followed as well. Their break was starting, and they could walk off. They did, no longer paying attention to the entrance in the least. None of them noticed how the door opened a tiny bit then closed, seemingly on its own, right before the next shift and new guards walked over.

Xia Moyin huffed out a small breath of relief and her nerves unravelled, before climbing up the inside of the door, towards the ceiling. From what she was able to gather, most if not all of the traps were set on the floor, and only the guards knew how to avoid them. Although, sometimes even they, the people who walked around it all day everyday, weren’t able to remember where they were and accidentally get caught. She wasn’t going to take her chances on it, especially since she didn’t know the situation on the inside.

The inside of the treasury was a series of long hallways, the walls made of something that looked just like drywall, but was much tougher. Large doors branched off of the main hallway, leading to the various rooms holding treasures. About thirty meters down the hall there was a dead end where the hallway split in two, one going to more rooms and the other going to a stairwell.

Xia Moyin took the stairwell, making sure not to touch the floor. she’d seen a few guards get electrocuted and setting the alarm off because they weren’t paying attention.

Surprisingly, there was only one guard on the stairs, standing over the entrance to the second floor. She easily slipped past him when he went to change stations. The first floor had a total of seven guards, and that number would only increase as she climbed to the top, along with the amount of traps set for thieves, which technically she was. The second floor had a total of twenty people patrolling, with fifteen traps.

She got close to being found out only once,as she was about to go into the stairwell. S`he was standing right in front of the door when the guard opened it from the other side, nearly giving her a heart attack. At one point he was so close she could smell the sweat on his body, before she backed up and hid in the corner, keeping completely silent. The guard walked past her, completely oblivious to the person hiding right in front of him.

As soon as he left Xia Moyin moved into the stairwell, ignoring her pounding heart. She scolded herself silently for her mistake, ‘That was way too close. I need to be more careful’

From then on she kept to the shadows, never getting close to touching the floor and staying outside of the range of the guards. She only passed through doorways when someone else opened them, crawling in through the gap that was made at the top of the door. She never attacked the guards, and steered clear of any sort of guardian animal that might catch her scent. The animals were much more perceptive than the people, and it would be child’s play for one of them to sniff her out.

Except for that first incident, Xia Moyin passed through the first four levels without any real problems, finally arriving at the fifth, and last, floor.

It was different than the others. Instead of long hallways lined with doors, it was just one huge room split in two by a small pathway through the middle. On either side, there were shelves, where precious treasures were put in order, from least valuable at the front and most valuable at the back.

Glittering gems, glowing armaments, and floating techniques were everywhere, filling the room with the hum of spirit power. Large casks of various liquids lined the back wall, filled with exactly what she was looking for, Buzzing Fire.

Not far from it there was a large tub full of reddish liquid, flashes of silver crackling around it and the smell of hot coals hanging over it. ‘Heavenly Spirit water…’

It looked a lot different from what she was imagining it to be, but that was irrelevant. The important thing was that she found it.

Xia Moyin took out a Cosmos Sack from the inside of her robe and started to put the casks into it. one by one. She had picked it up for the explicit purpose to use it here, and it did it’s job very well.

In less than three minutes all of the Buzzing Fire and Heavenly Spirit water had disappeared into the Cosmos Sack, leaving a huge blank spot on the wall. On a shelf not far from where the Buzzing Fire was, there were hundreds of spirit beast cores, stacked from strongest to least. She put all of them in the Cosmos Sack as well.

A large smile bloomed on Xia Moyin’s still invisible face. ‘I’ve got Heavenly Spirit water, Buzzing Fire and well over a hundred spirit beast cores. Now all I need is two more Cosmos Sacks and a container that is sealable. Yay’

She turned back towards the door, fully intending to go into the hall and climb out of a window before booking it back to the inn, when she heard voices.

“Your Highness.” It was the guards, and the clang of metal and stone ringing out as they knelt in front of him.

“Rise, you idiots.” The voice was male, sounding to be about twelve years old. He sounded exasperated and annoyed as he snapped at the guards, “I’m not here to see you kneel all night. Open the door, I need to get an armament for Imperial father.”

Xia Moyin froze, her face falling.

There was a prince behind that door, and he was about to walk in and see an empty wall that wasn’t supposed to be empty, investigate, and probably find her in the process.

‘Shit’