Eternal Thief

The canyon in the center of the Ancient Sky Battlefield was a mile wide and around a hundred miles long and pitch black from the inside. Terrifying killing intent was gushing out of it like raging flames.

Even Ace was getting goosebumps just by standing on top of the abyssal canyon, and he could feel the sword intent even more clearly.

With a grave expression, he looked at the fate map, but there were no signs of danger to him, so he directly jumped inside.

Sofia was startled by Ace's decisive action, but she quickly followed behind, kept a distance from him, and let him take the lead. If there were hidden danger inside, it would come for Ace first, and she could at least flee.

But just after diving over a hundred meters into the canyon, she felt mountainous pressure coming from below, and she had to use even more Qi to protect herself.

On the other hand, Ace was still going faster and faster as if that pressure and killing intent had no effect on him, which shocked her even more.

As they dived deeper, they found that the canyon was extremely deep, and even after falling for over a mile, there was no sign of the bottom.

'Just how powerful was this sword attack to make such a rift?' Ace's expression was solemn. He knew if he went full strength, he might only create a small rift in the earth, but this person had created such a deep canyon.

After falling for around three minutes, Ace was finally able to see the ground and quickly used his Qi to slow down and land without any hitch.

Sofia was the same, but she was now running out of Qi, and her breathing was somewhat rigid. Still, she gritted her teeth and looked around.

The ground was crimson and desolated, and the pressure was ten times greater than the surface. The source of this pressure was right ahead of them.

Ace carefully proceeded ahead while using his heavenly sense to the fullest; as his heavenly sense spread, he found that there was nothing inside in the vicinity of fifty miles when suddenly his heavenly seemed to have touched something!

Almost instantly, he felt a sting of sharp pain in his mind and quickly retracted his heavenly sense.

'What the hell could cause the heavenly sense to suffer a backlash?' Ace was astounded since it was his first-time experiencing backlash from the heavenly sense while his passive thief sense was still fine and didn't discover anything.

Hastening his footsteps, he quickly approaches the area where his heavenly sense suffered the backlash.

Sofia followed as she also sensed the pressure was growing stronger, and the killing intent was almost overbearing. Even with her space ability, she could still feel her mind being invaded by it.

In the end, she suddenly stopped as she knew if she continued, she would run out of Qi and fall into an extremely dangerous state.

"Wait!" She called hoarsely.

Ace stopped and looked behind and saw the ashen Sofia panting heavily, "What? Do you want to stop? No problem, you should quickly head out; I'll follow after investigating this place."

Even he was starting to use his heavenly Qi to protect himself from that killing intent so that he could tell Sofia was in even worse shape.

"I know I'm no match for you. But this is extremely important to me. S-so, please, if you could bring me with you, I'll tell you whatever you want to know!" Her face had a shade of crimson as she felt extremely suffocated just to ask for his help.

It was the first time in her life that she had pleaded for someone else help, and she was asking for help from someone she wanted to compete against. So, she felt extremely embarrassed and humiliated.

Ace was surprised as he knew Sofia was an extremely prideful person, so lowering their head had to be very difficult for her, worse than dying.

His lips rose up, "I can bring you with me as long as you answer this question. Tell me, what is the Mortal Sky Ascension Temple?"

His mission was to find the Mortal Sky Heart Empire and then infiltrate it, and he had done it. But now he had to find the Mortal Sky Ascension Temple, which was his true goal, where the heaven's secret lies.

But despite stealing the natives' memories of the sky heart plains, he still has not discovered anything about the Mortal Sky Ascension Temple. They don't even know its name and there was also no clue about the Heavenly Mortal Emperor.

Before, he thought the Mortal Emperor was the Heavenly Mortal Emperor, but now, he knew it wasn't that simple. Because the mortal emperor can die, and their ruling position can be changed, how could they be the Heavenly Mortal Emperor?

So, he reckoned that the Heavenly Mortal Emperor should be a hidden existence, and he might be in the Mortal Sky Ascension Temple. As for the Imperial Family, they might be his puppets, or they also don't know about his existence at all.

Whatever the case was, he needed to investigate the empire, and Sofia should know about something since she was the genius of the imperial family.

Just as Ace spoke the name of Mortal Sky Ascension Temple, Sofia's eyes widened to the fullest as if she had seen a ghost.

Appalled, she shouted, "How do you know that name?!"

Ace's eyes narrowed since her reaction confirmed that she knew about it.

"I heard it in the passing. As long as you tell me where it is, I'll take you with me and even help you recover." Ace impassively stated.

"No, it's impossible. That name can't be spoken by even the Mortal Emperor can't speak it! Just the thought of it would mean a death sentence. B-but… you speak its name, yet you're still breathing. Just who in the world are you?" She was appalled as she took a step back, even forgetting her fatigue.

Ace was flabbergasted by this unexpected discovery, "Since I can speak its name, then it means I'm far stronger than your clan. How about you tell me where it is, and I can promise no harm will come to you or your clan."

Suddenly, Ace's eyes flashed darkly before he uttered, "Where is the Mortal Sky Ascension Temple?"

This time, his voice contained a strange power, and Sofia's eyes became blank as she opened her mouth, "It's in the An…"

But all of a sudden, her blank eyes return to normal. However, she doesn't seem to remember what she just said. Ace was shocked as his soul words failed in the middle.

Sofia took a deep breath to calm her raging emotions before her eyes went colder than ice, and the next moment, she uttered decisively, "I'm afraid I can't tell you, simply because I'm incapable of it. The moment I tell you anything remotely related to it, I'll turn into dust on the spot. So, you can forget about it!"

Ace's heart sank a little since the soul words were his trump card, but the moment she was about to reveal the location, she instantly broke free. Yet, she didn't seem to be aware of it all.

'Could it be she really can't reveal it, even if she's under a law skill control?'

He didn't know if she was lying or not, but he could sense the hidden fear in her voice. She was even willing to give up on her goal to keep her mouth shut, so there was some truth in her words.

After all, she just lowered her head to know the secret of this place, yet now she was unyielding.

Ace thought for a moment before he said, "Alright, if it's a matter of your life, then I'll change my request, but this is my bottom line. Bring me into the Imperial Palace, and I'll help you."

Since she can't speak of its location, and he has a crucial clue, he just has to find it himself. Although he could enter the imperial palace on his own, with Sofia's help, it would be very easy.

But if she still didn't yield, she already knew too much, so he had to deal with her!