The house members and Ace were shocked by fiendish face's declaration.
The next moment, the fiendish face suddenly turned into a dark, eerie streak and directly shot toward Noa.
Noa's eyes narrowed as she sensed the nefarious aura contained in the dark streak, but it didn't have any attack power. Nonetheless, she knew if she were touched by it, it would be nothing but bad news.
A dark, ethereal barrier suddenly appeared in front of Noa to block the streak. However, she was startled when the dark streak landed on the Qi barrier in front of her, and the next moment, it started to spread around the barrier.
Everyone's expression changed because they could sense the dark streak's aura was corroding Noa's Qi.
"Quickly cut off your Qi!" Winter loudly yelled at Noa, who seemed to be in a stupor.
"I...I can't!" Noa replied in trepidation. She was shocked beyond words and was already trying to cut off her Qi, but for some reason, she couldn't!
At this moment, Ace decides to intervene. He directly appears in front of Noa and uses his own Qi to contain the corroding fog.
When Ace's heavenly Qi enveloped the corroding fog, it finally reacted. The sizzling sound of something burning rang, and Ace Qi seemed to be the bane of whatever this Killing Fiend Curse was. Dark smoke started to rise, clearing Noa's Qi barrier.
It was as if some kind of shackle had been lifted from Noa, and she could finally stop her uncontrollable Qi, and the barrier finally vanished the moment she cut off her Qi.
Ace's expression was grim as he saw the dark smoke vanishing. "It seemed we just dodged a bullet. This Fiend Assassin Guild isn't as simple as we're making it be. This curse could've been some kind of tracking mark or, worse, some kind of poison. Only my primordial spirit Qi was able to counter it!"
"Thank you, leader!" Noa quickly thanked Ace as she knew he just saved her from an unknown danger before killing intent flashed past her eyes as she looked towards the eight puppets lying there dead.
She wouldn't forget this grudge that humiliated her in front of Ace, and this Fiend Assassin Guild was already at the top of her kill list.
[Universal Key has detected Ascension Grade-7 Spiritual Law Master Lock on Lower Ascension Grade-7 Storage Space Ring!]
-Unlocking Cost: 10,000,000 TP
-Continue/Later
=====
Ace was astounded when he saw the universal key suddenly trigger on its own and was even more shocked when he found that this storage ring was an Ascension grade-7 treasure!
But he furrowed his brows slightly and asked the system before he continued, "System, why would I need the Universal Key to open this storage ring? Shouldn't you be opening it like you have been doing in the past?"
"[The Universal Key Function only triggered for 'Locks,' and this storage ring didn't just have a 'Spiritual Mark,' which is an evolved version of Qi Mark. The Spiritual Mark contained the owner's prime law in it, and it lasted for a long time, even after its owner's death.]
"[Normally, a Spiritual Mark can be simply destroyed as long as it is attacked by a stronger Spiritual Mark. However, this ring also has a special lock imbued in it, a Spiritual Lock, that can only be created by a unique branch of Rune Crafters, Lock Masters, and that's why these locks are called Master Locks!]
"[A master lock is a proper lock, far more complex than formation locks, and it is made with different mechanisms and complex arrays of formations. Just like you are used to opening the formation locks by breaking the formations, but unlike them, you need to break each formation in a special sequence for a master lock while making sure that a single wrong formation doesn't trigger the self-destruction sequence of a Master Lock!]
"[That's why Master Locks are the most protective forms of locks. Each master lock requires a special Key to unlock it, and without it, if anyone tries to open it after a set of failed attempts, the master lock would self-destruct while sending everything in it into the void,
forever lost!]
"[In this case, this ring's master lock key is the Soul Signature of its previous owner. If you try to forcibly open it, after three failed attempts, everything inside will be gone, along with
the ring.]
"[Of course, if host have deep knowledge of Lock Masters, you could try breaking it which also required special Lock Master Tools for Lock Masters!]"