Noa and Freya were sitting in the main hall without speaking anything.

Freya had this sullen expression as she was still peeved about how she almost got charmed by Ace, but that strange feeling was still there; she could feel it!

As for Noa, her face was hidden behind the mask. Only her pitch-black eyes were visible, and it was hard to guess what she was thinking.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.” Ace’s jolly voice rang.

He was in a good mood after breaking through and acquiring rewards.

Before Noa could utter a word, Freya shot a torrent of questions with pursed lips as she looked even more alluring, “What kind of Trial was that? And why does it look like some execution? And do we have to worry about it? And most importantly, how could you recover in three days from that state?”

“Alright, I’ll explain. Stop giving that death stare.” Ace’s perplexed voice sounded, “First, that Trial was actually because of my special cultivation. You see, I can cultivate in both Martial and Soul paths. But it had consequences, like the one you saw three days ago.

“Every time I break through to a higher realm, I have to cross such Trial. There’s no way going around it!”

Freya’s beautiful eyes completely widened when she heard this unbelievable truth. She was simply gobsmacked. In contrast, Noa didn’t seem surprised since Ace had told her.

But she never thought cultivating in both paths could bring such a ‘trial.’

However, she thought about how Ace could cultivate in both cultivation systems then she didn’t find this ‘trial’ unfair. Everything has a consequence, and this wasn’t any different.

Ace continued, “As for if you have to go through such a trial or not, I don’t know yet. But since you can break through realms normally, then it’s clear you don’t have to worry about it for now.

“Even if something like this happened in the future, it wouldn’t be as dangerous as my Trial, and I can protect you from it so you guys can have your mind at peace. Lastly, after crossing my Trial, I naturally got rewarded and recovered completely with my breakthrough.”

“Leader, what realm are you in right now?” Noa asked curiously. Since that ‘trial’ was so dreadful, Ace had to have at least into the soul manifestation realm if not law awareness.

However, when she heard Ace’s reply, her eyes winded, “I broke through River Core Realm.”

Freya also snapped out of her daze when she heard this and shrilled, “R-river core?! Then this means all this time you were in River Realm while doing all those thefts?! Are you kidding me!”

This was simply too unbelievable for them because they all thought Ace was at least a peak soul realm cultivator or even manifestation realm since he pulled all those thefts and completely destroyed the demon race’s prestige.

But it turned out he was doing all this while being in the river realm. If the demons know, won’t they all will die of humiliation since they got destroyed by a River Realm brat?

Ace chuckled, “This is also one of the benefits that come with cultivating both paths together. I’m far stronger than normal cultivators and lucky, I guess.”

Freya felt like her world turned upside down when she heard it and didn’t have more words to say anything. Her confidence in overtaking Ace’s position was completely crushed.

Noa’s eyes shimmered with reverence and adoration since she only wanted to become strong for him and stay by his side.

“C-can we…” Freya hoarsely spoke.

But before she could complete her sentence, Ace’s coldly shut her down, “It’s impossible unless you can kill me, and it still will be impossible. Just be grateful for what you have, or you might lose everything if you desire everything!”

Ace knew what Freya would ask if they could cultivate both paths like him, but he knew it was impossible without the system.

This thought process will only get her killed if she develops malicious intentions toward the system. That’s why he coldly crushed her hope before her ambition got the better of her.

She was too ambitious, but she was going in a completely different direction with all this, which would only lead to her death.

Noa also shot a cold glance at Freya as she also felt Freya was going out of her place this time.

Although Ace allowed Freya and Winter to eye his position so they could work hard, she didn’t like it.

Freya finally snapped out of her stupor as she got momentarily distracted by Ace’s prowess and wanted to have it as well. But she became sober when she thought about those thunder swords falling from the sky.

Does she even have the grit to pass such a trial?

She took a deep breath and lowered her head, “Please forgive me. I was way out of my place. I’ll be retiring today, but if you need anything, just call me.”

With that, she stood up and moved toward her personal space.

But a peculiar glint suddenly flashed past deep within Freya’s cold eyes, ‘If I can’t persuade that power, I should change my target….’ She vanished within her personal space.

Ace’s sighed ruefully, “Was I too hard on her?”

Noa shook her head and coldly said, “You should’ve done this long ago. The sooner they’ll know their place, the easier it is for them to accept it.”

Ace couldn’t help but raise his brows, “You sound like an autocrat, you know.”

A glint of unhappiness flashed past Noa’s eyes, “And you didn’t know how to handle your women!” Noa snorted before standing up and flashing into her personal space as she shut the door with a bam.

“Wait, my women?!” Ace was flabbergasted by the swing in Noa’s mood, and she even retorted for the first time.

‘Women are fickle, indeed.’ He smiled wryly as he stopped paying attention to the thief’s house.

But deep down, he knew what Noa was talking about. It’s just that he didn’t want to admit it…

Ace then checked his thief’s space just to see how the little guy was doing.

When he saw he was resting on Page-09, he was relieved.

However, his eyes narrowed at this moment because his eyes fell over new golden-gray wording which had appeared at the top of the Page-09.

With a thought, Page-09 vanished from beneath Cyrus and appeared in Ace’s hand. The little guy was still sleeping, as he didn’t notice.

Ace looked at the new writing that emerged on the top center of page-09.

It was also written in ancient god language.

“Avatar of Holy Twilight”

Ace was even more curious about this mysterious page-09 and mused, ‘These words appeared after it absorbed heavenly punishment. Could it be it needs more heavenly lightning to reveal the full set of words on the page? The only question is how much and what kind of information is hidden that needed heavenly thunder to get revealed?’

The more Ace thought about it, the more compelled he fell toward this mysterious page-09 and what was stored in it. But since he couldn’t do anything about it, for now, he put it away right under Cyrus with a thought.

Since heavenly thunder was needed to reveal the content of this page-09, he knew he still had a long way to go.

Afterward, a black jade scroll and a black crystal key appeared in his hand. They appeared after the elemental orb was torn apart by the system from the imperial demon scepter.

The black crystal key was cold to touch, was 9 inches in size, and looked just like an ancient key. He tried imbuing Qi, but nothing happened.

So, he tried to look into the jade scroll. Anticipation shone in his eyes. He knew since this jade scroll was hidden within the imperial scepter, it had to be quite important.

Suddenly information appeared in his mind, just like the sky sword jade scroll.

‘Secret Cultivation Art, Deity Lightning Strike.’

‘Requirement to see the art, ‘Soul Lightning Element.’

Ace was even more thrilled as he quickly changed his soul element to lightning and ethereal purple lightning started to cackle all over the jade scroll.

The next moment, the Deity Thunder Strike was revealed.

It was actually a law art but not at the same level as the sky sword. But it was probably one of the top law art of mortal sky heaven.

This law art could harness the power of Lightning Law, and then like a real lightning cloud, one can shoot down lightning from miles away!

Ace instantly remembered that lighting strike he saw in the Seal Castle, which shot down prince Martian that day.

‘So, it was Deity Lightning Strike, huh? Just how far could Demon Emperor strike their opponent while hidden in his palace?’

Ace felt glad and chill in his spine simultaneously because he wasn’t spotted that day or with Deity Lightning Strike; even his wings might not be enough to escape!