Eternal Thief

"That isn't the entrance of this heaven's corresponding abyss, right?"

Eve was as surprised as Ace and replied with uncertainty, "I don't think so. It is nigh impossible to cross between two places so simply. I have no memories of this. Maybe when I become more powerful, I might awaken those memories. But I can't be sure now still since this is a trial; I don't think it would be connected to the abyss."

Ace frowned a little, but he knew Eva's knowledge was limited despite her bloodline of the abyss so that he couldn't blame her. He then glanced at the fate map, and his eyes narrowed.

Although the fate map didn't show the terrains, it could still show the danger this place posed to Ace. Until now, the area was gray, even the black forest, yet that abyss was dyed black in the fate map.

'It might be the entrance to the true trial or some dangerous trap… I investigate it from the borders, and if found something amiss, I'll retreat immediately.'

After making up his mind, he slowed down, approached the abyss's entrance, and landed a few hundred meters from where the black forest ended.

Eva was also fully alert as she closely followed Ace. She could sense the dense aura of abyss from the darkness up ahead, and it was becoming denser the closer they got.

Ace also sensed that the law of darkness here was extremely apparent, and his stagnate Darkness Comprehension suddenly began to increase, which greatly shocked him. Not only that, but the laws corroded by the darkness also begin to make progress.

'This place has many laws related to darkness. Not only are the ones I have comprehended but there are some new ones that I don't know. But the heaviest presence is the laws of sin. If I stay here, I might be able to make huge progress in comprehension of darkness.

'I might be able to make the corruption of darkness reach 100%. Although I don't know what might happen when it reaches 100%, it has to be something good since the system is behind this…'

While Ace was mulling over this place, they finally reached the edge of the mouth of the abyss.

Only now could they gaze at the endless darkness, and there seemed no end to its depth.

Ace could barely peer around a hundred-meter-deep, and his thief sense also seemed restricted up to a mile radius, which was shocking. Ace then tried using the heavenly sense ability to see if he could find something.

As Ace released the heavenly sense, he could 'see' the depth of the abyss, but he was just a mile deeper when his heavenly sense suddenly stopped and wouldn't move forward no matter what, as if there was some invisible wall blocking it, just like his thief sense.

But it wasn't like Ace had discovered anything, not only his fortune sense was pointing below, with his heavenly sense he discovered something unusual.

"There is an escarpment around 900 meters deep with the wall of this abyss." He said to Eva while she was also using her soul sense to probe the depths, but she was even more miserable than Ace.

Eva was surprised, "Your innate sense is working?"

"No, I can only use up to 1% of my innate sense. So, do you want to go down?" Ace asked solemnly.

He didn't tell her to stay here because he knew she wouldn't listen, and she might become depressed if she thought he was thinking of her as a burden.

Eva didn't ask further questions as she knew about Ace's dual cultivation, so she thought it was because of it. She then nodded, "Alright, let go."

Ace didn't say anything, and like before, he took her down since she was still restricted because of the laws of this place. Nonetheless, Ace also felt that the surrounding restrictions were becoming more powerful, especially as he was descending into the abyss now.

If it was someone else, they might never be able to return to the surface.

Soon, they finally reached the escarpment, which was quite steep, and only a signal person could barely walk on it. But one misstep, and they will fall down into the abyss.

Ace also sensed that his thief sense was still restricted from this point, which made him somewhat flustered.

But he was using too much Qi to go against the restrictions of law, so he had to land, or he might not be able to respond to sudden danger.

"This seemed like a pathway. But where should we walk back or front?" Eva asked with a frown as she was also blind in this place, and the abyss aura was extremely dense here.

Ace sensed that the fortune sense was still pointing down below, so it was useless to follow it, so he decided to go front, "Hold me all the time, alright? If we sense some danger, we'll immediately retreat." He stated sternly.

Eva nodded as they began to walk on the steep sloop with the dark, cold walls of the abyss.

After walking for who knows how long, Ace suddenly noticed something, "I think this slop is leading downward. Maybe this is the correct way to go deeper into this place."

"Indeed, I also just noticed it. What a creepy place; I wonder what kind of trial this is or who built this." Eva gloomily replied because she was feeling a strange pressure while Ace seemed to be completely fine. But she didn't tell me.

Because there was no trace of light, they both didn't know how much time had passed, but at a certain point, Eva was sweating while Ace was also feeling a strange pressure now.

But the strange thing was Ace's comprehension of darkness was increasing even more quickly, so he was a little excited.

Then he finally noticed when Eva's hand suddenly trembled, and her breath was a little uneven. He was so absorbed in that feeling that he didn't pay attention to her.

"What's wrong?" Ace finally looked at her and noticed that she was using her cultivation and was a little pale.

"Nothing, it's just some pressure from this place that is affecting me. I'm fine." Eva replied by suppressing her trembling body.

"No, you are not fine. Retreat in my space first and recover. This place might have some effect on your abyssal bloodline. Don't worry. After you recover, you can come back, or I'll summon you once I reach the end. So, being stubborn will do us no good." Ace solemnly stated.

Eva gritted her teeth before she asked Flaggy, instead of replying to Ace, "Hey, can you do something about this?"

Flaggy replied, "This place is very strange as it is filled with strange laws even I had never seen before. Even more powerful abyssal beings would have a hard time if they came here. It is as if this was deliberately done to make things difficult for abyssal beings and abyssal treasures alike.

"Although I can help you avert some of this pressure, it would also worsen my condition, and I might fall into deep slumber if I use my power too much. So, you can decide whether you want to use me here or not.

"But this boy made me truly shocked; he's still fine despite all these restrictions as if they don't apply to him. But it shouldn't be possible. If I hadn't witnessed it with my eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. Just what is his background?"

Eva frowned as she wasn't expecting this sort of reply, and she coldly scoffed, "You're really useless, aren't you? Not to mention shameless for inquiring about him after belittling him all this time!"

Eva then looked at Ace and nodded in agreement.

Since Flaggy was useless and, as it said, this place seemed to have some strange restriction towards abyssal beings, she was becoming a burden to Ace this way.

Although she could still handle this, her Qi would soon run out, so there was no point in continuing. Not to mention, using Flaggy for this was not worth it since Ace was still fine.

But she didn't know that Flaggy's assessment of the restrictions was wrong, and if it had been someone other than Eva, they would've never even been able to make it 500 meters deep before dying here.

Ace was only fine because of his affinity with darkness and authority, these laws restrictions were even helping him to gasp more profundities of darkness. But how could they both see through this? In fact, no one can!

Afterward, Ace didn't hesitate and sent her to his thief's space, inside her house, so that she could recover. He then continued slowly while he was comprehending the darkness.

After an unknown amount of time passed, Ace's steady footsteps suddenly came to a halt because, in the steep pathway, there was an opening within the dark wall!

'A manmade cave?!'