Eternal Thief

Sofia finished another Lesser One Eye Abyss Devil phantom before she collected another devil core. It was already the fifteenth devil core she had collected. But her complexion was pale as a paper.

She hurriedly looked on the other side, and with her excellent sight, she saw hundreds of empty skulls of Lesser One Eye Abyss Devil and gritted her teeth in frustration.

'How did he manage to claim those cores without getting a reaction from them at all? Could it be there is a difference between his selected targets and mine? No, it shouldn't be the case since all of them look the same.

'At this rate, five more of those creatures and Qi will be fully depleted. Should I stop? But didn't this mean I'll be admitting I'm inferior to him?'

For the first time in her life, Sofia felt inferior to an unknown nobody, and this feeling was not a good one. But she had to admit she was really no match for the other party's strange abilities.

In the end, she didn't move forward to claim more devil cores and decided to rest and replenish her Qi. After all, she had no idea what those cores were. She was just competing out of spite. If she continued to be stubborn, she might fall into danger, and there was still the unexplored canyon, which was her true goal.

On the other hand, while Sofia was being flustered, Ace was moved all over the place as soul threads were shooting out of his fingers one after another before they vanished, and more devil cores would appear in his thief's space.

He didn't pay much attention to Sofia and let her claim as many as she could since he knew it wouldn't be long before she would give up, and just as he thought, she really gave up after collecting fifteen devil cores.

After all, since she didn't know what they were and their use, it was not worth falling into a dangerous situation.

Within half an hour, Ace cleared over ten percent of the battlefield within the barrier and claimed over ten thousand devil cores. There were simply too many, and he wondered just where and how these many Lesser One Eye Abyss Devils were able to come here.

He also spotted other races' bones as well and mused that they might be the ones who were battling against those Lesser One Eye Abyss Devils and lost their lives.

There wasn't anything worth taking except for the devil cores, so he continued with his mass collection.

Sofia was still struggling to replenish her Qi and was barely able to recover a small amount while she was blocking the killing intent invasion.

However, the more she observed Ace, the more she found it absurd because he was still moving and collecting the devil cores without any break, and she wondered if he had an endless amount of Qi or if the killing intent simply had no effect on him.

Whatever the case was, she was solemn and felt huge pressure from this unknown man. She even felt danger from him, and his existence might pose a threat to her clan.

Nonetheless, she knew she didn't have any means to compete against him. On the contrary, she reckoned that if she made a move against him before, she might be the one losing her life. It was a blessing that she had signed a soul contract, or without it, she would've never felt safe while he was around.

Although she didn't have good feelings for her clan, it was still the place she was born in, so it was only natural that she was worried about them.

After a few hours, Ace finally cleaned up all the devil cores and collected 2,130,459 of them, which were more than sufficient to create a complete One Eye Devil's Core for Moira.

While the rest, he wanted to see if he could raise his law of devour from 99.99% or not. If it's the latter, he would give them to Eva since they might be useful for the possessor of the abyssal bloodline.

Appearing in front of pale Sofia, he said smilingly, "How's your harvest?"

"Are you taunting me?" She clenched her fist tightly as she felt Ace was looking down on her by asking this question.

"I wouldn't dare." Ace coolly replied, "Are you prepared to head in the canyon? How about I go alone? You might not be able to withstand the killing intent in there. Earlier, I scouted that place, and it is really the place where this killing intent originates.

"After all, we are allies, and there might be a chance to work together in the future, so putting your life at risk here is not worth it. If anything, I'll tell you what I found in there once I discover it since you only want to know the secret of this place."

Sofia was still a valuable asset since she knew many secrets of the imperial family, and if he could turn her to his side, it would make his mission even easier. So, he showed his goodwill towards her.

But it seemed to have done the opposite as Sofia glared at Ace with hostility and uttered, "You want the treasure for yourself? Dream on! Let's go, you don't need to worry about me. I can handle myself. You should be worried about yourself, or you might die for your greed!"

Ace shook his head in disappointment; he knew, as a talented princess of the empire, she had never suffered a setback before, so his goodwill did the opposite.

'Well, if she fell into any trouble, I'll just save her, and then she might be willing to reveal the secrets.'

"Alright, let's go then." Ace didn't retort and began to move toward the canyon.

The fate map was still silver, so he knew there was still something here worth his while. Furthermore, he was very interested in the sword intent hidden in this killing intent, and he was sure it was far above his own sword intent.

He wanted to try to incorporate it with his own comprehension of the sword, break the final barrier, and reach 100% in sword law.

Sofia didn't refute this time and quickly followed behind with a dark expression. She was only able to recover 30% of her Qi, and she was nowhere near her peak state, while she could tell Ace was still nonchalant.

But she didn't want to miss this. After all, she had been interested in this place for many years, and she wouldn't be losing it to Ace unless she had no other choice!