Eternal Thief

Ace's eyes shimmered in astonishment as he landed in front of the crimson barrier. Even though the other side was completely suppressed, he could still smell the potent blood and feel the ghastly killing intent trying to invade his mind as if he could see a river of blood flowing right in front of him.

There were myriad skeletons scattered, broken weapons and armor on the other side. In the center was a canyon, and the killing intent was strongest there. Furthermore, unlike Sofia, he could feel another sharp, vague intent completely assimilated in the killing intent.

'Sword intent?!' Ace's heart raced as he couldn't been wrong because he was also a sword cultivator, and his sword laws were stuck at 99.99%.

But in front of this sword intent, his own was as weak as an ant's, and he finally believed that the canyon might be formed with a sword slash. It wasn't just a rumor.

'Just how strong was that person, and how many people did he kill to have such a dense killing intent to affect this massive area, and his killing intent could even render all the other laws useless?' Ace's expression was grim as he never expected to stumble upon this kind of secret.

"So, what do you think? Can you do anything about this barrier?" Sofia asked, seeing the silent Ace.

She has come here multiple times but has never been able to break past this barrier. She was very interested in the secret behind it. Ace was her only hope now.

Ace replied, "I might be able to break it, but do you ever think that this barrier might be sealing something, and if it was broken, whatever is sealed might escape and wreak havoc in the Sky Heart Plains?"

Looking at the massive dome, Ace knew this wasn't something that could be created by just anyone. Furthermore, he wasn't even sure if it was a grade-9 formation barrier since it gave him a completely different feeling.

It was like this barrier was created with blood which won't make it easy to break after all just the sword intent, Ace could guess whoever made it was not at the level of law comprehension realm.

This battlefield was proof of a terrifying battle, and for whatever reason it was fought, it was so simple.

Sofia winced when she heard Ace as she really didn't think of this, "This place was in existence even before our clan came to rule over this place. Do you think whatever is sealed there will be alive? I also have an assumption as well; this barrier might be the manifestation of this killing intent and form naturally like the natural formations."

"You do know a lot," Ace commented; this was really a possibility.

"I've been studying since the age of three, and I've studied anything worth studying, or do you think I would've been foolish enough to explore this place? You on the other, are a complete mystery, you probably know even more than my clan which is completely strange. I'm still not sure where you pop out of from? Oh, and you didn't tell me what you get from those two mountains?" Sofia looked at Ace with her clear eyes and extreme curiosity.

Ace chuckled, "Didn't I tell you I like to collect shiny things? I found shiny things in those mountains, and since they belonged to no one, I took them. What do you want me to give back what I've taken? Let me tell you, once I took something, it's gone forever."

Sofia snorted, "Humph, you can continue to be mysterious. But I'm not a greedy person; I just want to unravel the mystery behind this place. Now, can you open it or not? Even if we unleash something, let those old fogeys worry about it. This might reawaken their slumbering spirit."

Ace was speechless, "You think it too simply. Still, since you don't care, it has nothing to do with me."

Shaking his head, he moved his hand in front of the barrier and unleashed the Dismantle Qi. Sofia was shocked when she saw this and tried probing the pitch-black Qi, but to her surprise, she didn't sense anything at all, which gave her another surprise as Ace became even more mysterious.

However, something out of Ace's expectations happened; the moment the dismantle Qi touched the barrier, the dark rune symbols seemed to have met with their nemesis and started to retreat as if they were alive.

The next moment, the barrier was completely replaced by Ace's dismantle Qi, and the more he poured it, the wider the break became!

Ace was startled by this, and he tried to retract the dismantle Qi. The next moment, the barrier instantly covered that area again before it was completely sealed off like nothing had happened.

'This?' Ace narrowed his eyes as this sort of situation had never happened before.

"What kind of sorcery is this?" Sofia spoke in bewilderment as she never expected Ace's Qi would be able to breach the barrier that even she was helpless against.

She instantly guessed that this was the same method Ace used to breach the two mountains as well.

"Try to enter this time," Ace said as he didn't answer since even he was startled by this strange change.

"You first. What if you decide to trap me in there once I'm on the other side? Do you take me for a fool?" Sofia sneered as she thought Ace was being quite obvious by using her as a test subject.

"We have a soul contract. Why would I try to harm you?" Ace was startled as he didn't have such intention, he just wanted to see if she could pass the gap made with the dismantle Qi.

"Still, I won't be your guinea pig." She remained adamant.

Ace rolled his eyes, but she indeed had a point since he might not do it either if someone else told him to.

Having no choice, he decided to test himself, but this time, he wrapped his body with the dismantle Qi and walked toward the barrier.

Like before, the runes on the barrier instantly retreated to the side and let Ace easily pass the barrier without any hitch. Once he was on the other side, the barrier instantly began to repair itself.

However, before the gap fully closed, Sofia vanished from her spot and appeared ten meters away from Ace. She muttered with ecstasy, "My teleportation worked!"

She then tried again to do the same, but now that the barrier was fully closed, she couldn't teleport to the other side. Strangely, she found that if she wanted to use her ability inside the barrier, she didn't meet any restrictions.

Ace was also surprised, and he didn't expect Sofia to take advantage of this opportunity so flawlessly. He had to admit her space-type abilities were extremely enviable.

But Sofia's elated expression soon changed, "Not good, the restriction here is completely different. My Qi is depleting too fast! What about you?"

She has been using her space-type Qi to protect herself from the restraints, but it does drain her Qi. She can still use soul crystals to recover faster than the draining rate.

However, here, her Qi consumption becomes extremely massive, and she won't be able to keep it up for long before she fully runs out of Qi, and the restriction affects her.

Ace also felt powerful pressure, but he was still fine because of his heavenly Qi, and he didn't need Qi stones to recover it either.

But he can't tell her this as he nodded and gravely replied, "I'm the same!"