Eternal Thief

While Ace was busy dealing with Thomas, the feather and Cyrus were left behind alone.

With an assertive look, Cyrus was carefully watching over the feather so it won't play any trick, just as Ace commanded.

"It seems your master is far more capable than he's showing." The feather suddenly stated in a friendly tone, "Can you tell me how you both met? Or how he was able to make you his life companion? I was under the impression that the Nether Paradise Birds had gone extinct, and it was exactly because of their fiery and murderous nature."

For a strange reason, the feather's tone seemed to be somewhat different from before Ace was here.

However, despite the feather's questions, Cyrus didn't reply and continued keeping an eye on the feather.

Seeing Cyrus had no intention of replying, it suddenly said something else, "Do you want freedom? I can see your master has suppressed your cultivation with some strange method. Furthermore, if he dies, you will also die, but nothing will happen to him if you die. In my opinion, this is not fair to a being like you. This is worse than slavery, I'm telling you.

"But with my help, I can easily break the Life Companion Contract between you two. You will be free to do whatever you what. All you have to do in return is to do one thing for me and tell me more about your master."

However, Cyrus still remained completely silent without any ripple in its tiny eyes, as if he didn't understand what the feather was saying or simply ignored it.

"Come on, little guy, work with me, and I can give you as many feathers like this as you want. You don't belong here, especially not as an inferior being's slave. Use your brain for once and be like your mighty ancestors. This place is a mere…"

The feather's voice abruptly came to a halt, and the very next moment, Ace stepped back into the core space.

Ace looked at Cyrus and the feather and saw nothing was out of the ordinary. He looked at the feather with a smile and said, "Thank you for your help, senior. I took care of the matter with my friend, and it seemed he didn't want to leave, so I left him alone. Do you collect the treasures?"

Now that Thomas was already being healed within his thief's space, the only thing left was the treasures the feather was supposed to give him.

The feather solemnly stated, "Of course, while you were taking care of your friend, I collected everything you needed, but the spirit flames can't be stored in the storage ring."

The next moment then, golden storage rings appeared in front of Ace, and without hesitation, he took them all. After seeing all of them were filled with all sorts of treasures, Ace's mood got far better after meeting with Thomas.

"Leave the spirit fire to me, senior. Just bring it and the beast core of its protector here, and I'll take care of the reason." Ace confidently claimed.

The fire spirit was one of the most exotic treasures present in this place, and he wasn't going to leave here, especially the beast core, which Noa needed for her own use. He already had collected one and delivered it to her, and only the last one remained.

Furthermore, with this feather's help, it would be very easy to get both of them without much hassle because it seemed to have full control over the realm, and he didn't believe the spirit fire was any different.

"Oh, if you say so. The spirit fire is indeed very hard to come by, and the protector's core is also a very rare treasure. There should be some spirit flame refinement techniques in the treasures. I'll guide you through them, don't worry." The feather confidently declared.

"Of course, of course, I'll follow your teaching." Ace quickly agreed without even thinking twice.

The next moment the feather again opened a golden swirl, and suddenly Cyrus's voice rang in Ace's mind.

"Big Bro, while you were not here, the feather said that…"

Ace's jolly expression changed ever so slightly before coldness crept from his eyes when he heard all the things Cyrus just revealed.

"… he promised to give me more feathers, so can we trick it and get more feathers?" Cyrus's greedy voice rang as the little guy clearly only cared about getting more feathers, while the other stuff was nothing but gibberish in Cyrus's mind.

However, for Ace, this matter was shocking, and he was fully alert to it. Because the things that the feather said during his absence revealed that it didn't seem to care about Ace at all; instead, its behavior was nothing but a façade!

'If Cyrus hadn't told me about this, I might've fallen into some sort of scheme. But no matter how I look at this, the feather seems to cooperate with me fully, and those treasures are not fake at all.

'This could only mean that it wanted to win my trust, and its goal is something far more important than these treasures, and it might have something to do with Cyrus. It offered Cyrus freedom as long as he did one thing for it while I was not around, and even though Cyrus hadn't replied, it might've been thought that this would sow a seed of rebellion in his heart.

'No one can resist the temptation of freedom if they are slaves. But the feather also seems to be under the wrong impression that Cyrus is my life companion and has his own free will despite being under this contract.

'While in truth, he's far more than just that, and he can never betray me, much less even think about it. I'm even more important to him than his own family, so the feather's plan to sow discord between us is flawed from the start.

'But one thing is quite obvious, this feather is not what it appears to be, and its knowledge is beyond this Heaven, and it also knows about the Nether Paradise Bird. For all I know, it might be after Cyrus this whole time, and it wanted to remain close to me until it could make Cyrus rebel.

'The only advantage I have over the feather is also Cyrus, and once it's gone, I'll be like a sitting duck to slaughter, and it can take back everything in one fell swoop!'