Eternal Thief

Sofia felt very ambivalent at this moment since Ace was bluntly asking her for help to infiltrate the imperial palace. No matter how indignant she was towards her family, she didn't want to harm them, and she had already deemed Ace capable of such a feat.

Suddenly, a thought flashed past her mind, 'How about I take him with me and then alert His Imperial Majesty? This way, we can capture him before he can do any harm?'

With such a trail of thoughts, she nodded, "Alright, I'll bring you with me!"

Although she didn't show it, how could her abrupt change in emotions escape someone like Ace?

He already guessed what she might be planning, but it didn't matter to him since as long as he entered the imperial palace, he'd be able to get what he wanted.

"Alright." Ace smiled before he moved his hand towards her, "Grab my hand."

Sofia looked at his hand suspiciously and hesitated, but in her current circumstances, she had no choice but to comply.

Holding her soft hand like cotton, Ace used his heavenly Qi to cast a barrier around her.

Sofia's face reddened slightly as it was her first time coming in close contact with a man, but her embracement quickly replaced with shock when the pressure and killing intent instantly vanished. Without wasting time, she took out a soul crystal and began to recover.

"Let's go." Ace pulls her towards the source of the killing intent.

"I…" She wanted to retract her hand instinctively, but she managed to stop herself and followed him, 'Just who is he? This Qi is nothing like I have ever seen or heard…' She wondered as she felt his strong grip and blushed heavily.

Under Ace's guidance, they both quickly reach their target before their footsteps come to a halt.

In front of them was a pitch-black humanoid skull over fifty meters in size. It has a pair of antelope horns and eight eye sockets, and its mouth is filled with vicious teeth. Furthermore, the dense killing intent was emitted from it, giving the illusion of endless slaughter and destruction; this was probably the source of the killing intent.

But the skill wasn't the only thing as there was an ocean blue blade sword piercing right into its forehead; the sword was twenty-meter-long and five-meter-wide with a long white hilt, and there were clear cracks on its ocean blue blade.

Nonetheless, a sharp sword intent was strongly emitting from it, clashing with the skull's killing intent as if they were still fighting over domination.

Ace's attention was instantly drawn to the cracked sword, and his heart raced since this sword might be the strongest sword he had ever laid his eyes on. Even the sword imbued in the Heaven Imposing Sky Lock Formation can't compare to it.

"I-is this the secret of the Ancient Sky Battlefield?" Sofia mumbled in a daze.

Ace nodded and replied with a hint of uncertainty, "This is probably it. If I'm not mistaken, that sword is probably stopping that thing from coming back to life. It must be the head of the leader of the skeletons that we saw on the surface."

"What? That monstrosity can also come back to life like those abominable skulls?" Sofia shuddered with fear as she didn't dare to imagine what would happen if that skull also came back to life.

Despite Ace's Qi protecting her, she could vaguely feel a deadly sensation just by looking at that skull.

She suddenly looked at Ace; appalled, she asked, "Y-you… you aren't thinking of taking that sword, right?"

She knew that the sword was a priceless treasure despite its rigid state, and since that sword had cut that head off and even stopped it from revival for all these years, it had to be something extremely precious.

"What? Didn't you say you don't care about the consequences if we freed whatever is sealed here before? Don't tell me now you're hesitating?" Ace asked with a sharp smile.

He knew better than anyone the difference between calming something and then doing it. The former was extremely easy, while the latter was difficult. Only when faced with the choice did you truly understand what's at stake!

Sofia was the same before she casually claimed that she didn't care. Now that she had seen what was really sealed in this place, she finally understood just how naïve she had been.

"I… since you take those cores before those things can come back to life, you can do the same with this one, no?" Sofia hesitantly looked at Ace with anticipation. She knew Ace was very capable, so he had to have a way to bypass this difficulty as well.

Ace chuckled and didn't deny it, "So, you didn't want to compete for that sword with me?"

Sofia shook her head vehemently, "I just want to know what was the mystery behind the Ancient Sky Battlefield. Furthermore, now I know my limit, without you, I might've never able to breach the barrier outside much less reach this point. So, you can take it since you earn it."

"Heh, alright, I won't stand on ceremony then." Ace didn't say anything further and sprang into action.

He directly sent two soul threads toward the sword and skull to pickpocket them simultaneously. However, the moment his soul threads touch the skull and the sword, they turn to particles!

Ace squinted his eyes, "I need to release your hand to claim them. Can you endure in the meantime?" He asked. Since the soul threads were incapable of touching those two things, he had to move personally.

Sofia nodded, "Since I've seen what I want, I'll use teleportation to head to the surface. There is no need for me to stay here anymore."

Since she has already recovered 40% of her Qi, she can use her space-type abilities again. So, without hesitation, she used her space ability and vanished!

Ace was surprised for a moment before he focused on the prize again. Since Sofia was gone, he didn't need to worry about anything.

He moved toward the massive skull while protecting himself with the heavenly Qi, the pressure was almost neglectable.

Just as he was about to touch the skull, an extremely frail voice rang in his mind, "Stop, or you'll die!"