The masked man didn't find Ace's request suspicious since almost every cultivator paid for the membership to gain access to security vaults. It was also the most significant selling point of the bank memberships and one of the secrets to their wealth.
"Please follow me, Mr. White. I'll lead you to the Vault Warden, and he'll take over from there." The masked man replied before standing up and gesturing to Ace to follow him.
Ace nodded as he started to follow the masked man while he secretly transmitted his voice, "So, do you have any opinion?"
"You still want my opinion?" Malservus's playful yet somewhat aggravated voice sounded, "This is just a waste of time; you shouldn't let your pride cloud your judgment. Heed my advice and find some sect's ancestral tomb!
"Trust me; it's far safer and always paid off, not to mention the stronger the sect, the more likely they'll bury the entire wealth of their ancestors and seniors with them just to show their glorious past and flaunt their power and wealth.
"Those fools think that the dead will have any use for those treasures, so instead of letting them rot, why not just give them away to the needy and gather some good karma?
"So, don't you dare think that this is some lowly act! Instead, you are just digging for treasures, and those rotten bones just happened to be buried there. This is called treasure digging, not graverobbing, I'm telling you!
"Moreover, some extremist even buried their entire life's worth of wealth with them without giving them away to anyone. Some lone cultivators create inheritance grounds to find a worthy inheritor that they couldn't when they were alive.
"Some evil cultivators create death grounds using their entire wealth just because they can't accept their death and want to drag the world as a whole down to hell with them.
"Some cunning fellows even use graves as a treasure vault to hide their own secrets because not even a demonic cultivator would stoop to so low as to destroy graves unless the enmity goes way back.
"Trust me, you should stop playing this fancy rich boy, pick up a spade, and follow my instructions! We might stumble upon some secret realm tomb!"
The more Malservus spoke about 'treasure digging,' the more excited and agitated she became, rendering Ace speechless. Although he had accepted her request since she was very knowledgeable about thievery and knew many secrets, as well as about Heaven's Stealer, he wasn't expecting she would be crazy about graverobbing!
Not only that, she also seemed to enjoy tormenting her dead victims because after she robbed their graves, she would leave behind her name by writing with the very bones inside the grave.
Apparently, she also wanted Ace to do the same, which he instantly rejected, making Malservus greatly displeased. She rants to the end about how Ace doesn't know better, does not appreciate her kindness, and is too arrogant, and she even stops talking with him.
But Ace didn't listen to her at all. No matter how crooked he was, he really wasn't into digging people's graves, and finding treasures in the graves was like a gamble.
Furthermore, just as Malservus said, those who can bury treasures with the dead were either extremely wealthy and powerful or simply cared about the dead too much. In both cases, this enmity form wasn't something anyone would let go of.
After all, Malservus was in her current state because she dug a terrifyingly powerful clan's ancestral tomb, and he even suspected that she wasn't killed not because she was immortal but because that clan wanted to torment and punish her for what she had done.
Nonetheless, Malservus won't tell him the entire story or all the parties involved. Still, Ace guessed that whoever she had offended was strong enough to imprison her in the Primordial Path of Ascension for an insurmountable amount of time!
But he was sure that this enemy was not friendly to him either. Ace had already decided to dig for more information from Malservus, so he asked her opinion. But her words left him speechless again.
"Umm... Master, even if I agree to dig some graves, do you think graves in Mortal Ascension Heaven would hold anything valuable? Furthermore, don't forget this is a different era, and people might no longer follow the same customs they do in your era.
"Besides, I'm not doing it for treasures, but to become famous and the Prime Heavenly Bank is the ideal target not to mention if I can find a way to track down the location of their secret vaults, think about all the treasures those cultivators entrusted to the bank?
"Isn't this the same as 'treasure digging?' We are just not digging treasures of the dead but the alive!" Ace stated matter-of-factly as he entered a brightly lit, long underground corridor and followed the masked man.
"Well..." Malservus's voice suddenly lost her confidence, as if she was really mulling over what Ace said, "Alright, at least I agree with your statement about the Mortal Ascension Heaven being too weak to have anything noteworthy. But don't think that you can trick me into helping you with this fancy heist of yours.
"I, Malservus, was the Dirge Pioneer Spade, and I'll always be the Dirge Pioneer Spade! I have always stolen from the dead because they don't mind, and those who mind have nothing to do with it. Even a Heaven's Stealer can't compete with my art of treasure digging!
"So, I'll only advise you when you're digging for treasures, not fishing for them! Humph!" Malservus scoffed, her voice filled with confidence and unyielding pride.
Ace didn't know how to respond since he never expected Malservus to be this stubborn and so cultish about her profession. She simply refused to listen; it was as if she was competing to prove herself.
Nonetheless, Ace can't do anything about it since he wasn't going to start 'digging graves', at least not yet. But this also gave him more insights into what kind of character Malservus had, or there was also a possibility of her deliberately portraying this image in his mind.
After all, Ace knew better than anyone; thieves were liars, and there was no honor among thieves!