Eternal Thief

Ace stopped out of the golden swirl at this moment, and the latter vanished right after.

However, he was astounded when he saw he wasn't in the middle of another fire sea or it wasn't even hot anymore. Instead, he was standing in the middle of infinitely tall crimson walls.

'So, it's a maze…' Ace looked at the ninth layer map, which was showing excessive pathways, and his destination was on the other corner from this place.

Furthermore, by the looks of it, he knew he couldn't just fly over straight toward that point like he usually did since he couldn't see the end of those walls at all.

At this moment, out of the blue, the same voice rang again, "Welcome Sun and Moon Seeker White in the Last Upper Layer, Final Trial!

"Congratulation for being the first person to ever stumbled upon this place!

"The Ninth Layer of the Secret Sun Realm is the Final Unique Trial, the Sun Seeker's Maze!

"All you need to do is found your way toward the final Holy Gift of the Sun God, and you will be deemed worthy of being the Sun Chaser!

"However, unlike other trials, the Sun Seeker's Maze is not a place where you can leave once you enter!

"The previous trials were all meant for preparing the Sun Seeker for this final trial, and from here on out, you will either persist or perish by the will of Sun God!

"There is no time limit in this final trial, there is no limit to the treasures you can spend, there is no limit to the survival tactic you could conjure up, found the way toward the Sun, and you shall be the first ever Sun Chaser!" The voice was extremely grand and solemn.

Ace frowned as he didn't expect the final trial to be a death run which was quite cruel after nurturing someone for all this time.

Still, it wasn't like he was completely clueless about where to go and couldn't see the traps and dangers in this place.

"Don't worry, big bro. We'll win for sure!" Cyrus encouraged Ace with full of fighting spirit.

Ace snickered, "I'm planning to. But in this place, you can't just consume anything, especially two things, one is an Elemental Orb, and the other is the realm core. Because if you do, we'll both suffer terribly."

In these past months, Ace came to know just how glutinous this little fellow was for anything that caught his fancy, and those things that fell in that category were all exotic treasures that were never seen before and probably left behind by that so-called Sun God.

That's why he was pretty sure Cyrus won't reject the Elemental Orb either since it was even more precious than the Spirit Fire, and if he really ended up consuming it, Ace would have no place to cry. So, he warned the little gluttonous beforehand to keep its tiny beak shut.

"I won't, I promise!" Cyrus quickly promised as he never took such action without Ace's permission to begin with.

"Good." Ace was pleased as he stepped over his sword and started to fly a few meters above the ground.

Despite not having the ability to fly over those walls, this didn't mean he needed to remain on the ground. It was far better since more of the traps were hidden on the lands, and many of them were even etched on the walls.

Ace just needed to follow the path that led directly toward the both Realm Core and the Yang Orb. As for the last spirit fire, it was in completely opposite direction, so Ace decided to first focus on the Realm Core and the Yang Orb since they were together.

Furthermore, he was pretty sure once his realm was destroyed, all those treasures would be his to grab. Especially that spirit fire, since he was the only one who had a method to both suppress and contain it.

But there was still a problem which was if this realm was destroyed, he didn't know if this realm would be merged back into the Union side or the ten continents side. Before, he was sure it would be merged back into the union, but now he wasn't sure.

Furthermore, if it ended up merging in the Union after all, then Ace would have to move quickly and enter the Moon Secret Realm right away before anyone could find out what had happened.

Although it would be nigh impossible, but he has various plans to handle those situations.

However, it could all be avoided if Freya could succeed with the Grim Ancestor's matter, and he also preferred it this way.

So, he sent his conscious back to the thief's space to check up on her so he could change his route if she needed more time.

Freya sat cross-legged on an exquisite grade-6 yellow cultivation mat with her third eye opened as it shimmed with colored lights, and her other two eyes were closed, and right in front of her was a dark cocoon that was pulsing in golden symbols.

"Stoooppp! You bitch stop right now! You have no idea what you're doing! If you stop now, I'll tell you whatever you need. Just stop this!

"Ahhhhhh… I'll curse you even if I die, I'll take all you thievish bitches to the grave…lyyyayayahhhhhh!"

Ghastly, high-pitch screams could be heard from the cocoon every time it blinked, and there were two voices; one was male, and the other was a female, and they hollered in pain while they cursed like crazy.

This was naturally none other than the Grim Ancestor, who cunningly avoided Freya's secret skill that day but soon regretted it. Because he never thought Freya would have this sort of heinous method to refine his soul, which was unheard of even for someone like him.

As Freya slowly refined the Grim Ancestor's soul, he started to panic as he thought it might not work on him since his soul's rank was still higher than Freya's.

When proven wrong, he tried to talk his way out of this impending death, but Freya was like a brick wall as she completely ignored him.

Soon, those pleas turned into horrid cries and curses as the pain was simply too unbearable even for him.

Now the Grim Ancestor was at his wits end just like he was at the end of his life. When he started this venture, he never expected what he considered an opportunity for his rise would be turned out to be his demise.

Freya was unbothered by Grim Ancestor's screams as she got used to it.

But what bothered her and irked her to no end was the fact that Ace's unrevealed months ago about having a wife.

Although she remained calm and didn't comment on it since she was completely lost for words at that time, this didn't mean she was bothered by it at all, and strange frustration bundled up in her heart.

However, she put this conversation on hold until she was done with Grim Ancestor. It was also a sort of output to vent her frustration, and the process that could've been less painful turned into a hellish final torture for the old snake!