Purgatory
The voice once again appeared from the sky.
"I will now perform the assessment of the second trial"
Lights began to fall upon each candidate and the voice said out loud the examination results.
"Failed… your body contained 2% nether energy"
"Failed… your body contained 0% nether energy"
"Failed… your body contained 0% nether energy"
The message of failure kept going on and on. Everyone was absolutely shocked that no one had managed to pass the second trial. They initially thought that the point of the trial was to absorb the lake's energy without dying.
When the light shined on the young woman leading the other human group. The voice changed its tone for the first time to a more cordial one.
"Impressive, 15% nether energy. Unfortunately, you still failed"
Everyone looked at the girl with great curiosity. Having 15% nether energy meant that she didn't fully cleanse the ominous energy from the lake and kept it in her body.
A question began to form in everyone's head.
'Did she know the actual purpose of the second trial?' Nevertheless, it didn't matter because she still failed.
The message of failure appeared once again as the voice evaluated the other candidates. Even the prodigies from the other races failed to pass the second trial. No one had more than 15% of the nether energy in his or her body.
When the light landed on Bruce, the voice didn't say anything which made everyone paid attention to him. After a few moments, the voice finally spoke again with a cheerful tone.
"Congratulations, you passed the second trial with 50% nether energy in your body"
Everyone gasped when they heard that Bruce had 50% nether energy in his body. Normally, a cultivator's body would decade and eventually be destroyed if it had 20% nether energy. Bruce somehow managed to be alive even with 50% nether energy in his body.
"Human, what are you?" For the first time, the angel leader started to communicate with another human. He had seen Bruce casually passed the first trial with little to no efforts. But that didn't surprise him at all since some human clans in the world specialize in soul mastery.
However, he had never heard of any human clan able to intake energy from the nether without dying. Only those who sold their souls to the undying beasts from nether realm can intake nether energy. He thought that Bruce sold his soul to someone in the nether realm in exchange for power.
He immediately shook his head from the silly hypothesis because beings from nether realm or those who are related to them are banned from this world. There was no way a Worldly Supreme would allow someone like that to take the inheritance.
"I'm just a humble nobody. However, if you mess with my group, I'll make sure you regret it" Bruce replied with a smile.
"I see" The angel leader stared at Bruce to determine if anything is special about his body, but he couldn't find anything.
The dragons and demons no longer looked down on Bruce because he's now the only one left to potentially inherit the Worldly Supreme inheritance. Though, the dragon leader still looked at Bruce with great hatred.
"The second trial is now concluded. You all may wait here and continue to cultivate in the city while the last contestant attempts the third trial"
The voice disappeared and so was the nether lake.
Before Bruce got a chance to advice his group on what to do while he's gone, he got teleported directly to the third and final trial.
"Deion, this is bad!" Edward grabbed Deion to the side.
"Yeah, it is" Deion's face turned grim.
The reason why both were in high alert at that moment was because the dragons and the demons were looking at them with great hostility. It was obvious that both groups will attack them as soon as the trial is over.
"We have to hold them off until Bruce gets back" Sophia finally spoke up.
"They're most likely planning to hold us as hostage in exchange for the Worldly Supreme inheritance"
"In any case, with my light power, I can weaken them by 20%."
"If the angel and the other group of humans join the fight then we can only run away until Bruce gets back" Despite saying all that, Sophia still didn't show any sign of concern under her veil.
She knew fully well that Bruce would receive the Worldly Supreme inheritance and return to annihilate everyone.
Meanwhile, Bruce arrived at the third trial, and he didn't expect the trial to turn out like this. The entire world was enflamed by pure fire. Countless of profound beasts with flames on their bodies looked at him as a delicious prey.
'Shit, do I have to survive this hell for a day to pass the third trial?' Bruce thought to himself as he was surrounded by countless of stage 4 profound beasts.
Amidst the chaos, the voice rang out from the sky again.
"Congratulations for making it this far. You are the first candidate over the past thousands of years to enter the third and last trial of the Worldly Supreme being"
"What you see here is the Realm of Purgatory. The Worldly Supreme being used to rule over this realm. Only those who can conquer purgatory is worthy to receive the inheritance of the illustrious being"
"With that said, I shall give you the task for the third trial"
"The task is very straightforward and almost impossible for anyone"
"Defeat 100 Stage 4 Profound Beasts in Purgatory in one day to pass the last trial"
"I wish you best of luck, dear candidate"
The voice disappeared with Bruce having his mouth wide opened.
"Motherfucker, come back here!"
"You want daddy to defeat 100 of these beasts in one day? Screw you!"
Stage 4 profound beasts are equivalent to Divine King experts. Bruce himself was not even at the Divine King realm and struggled to fight one mid stage Divine King with Deion. Even though Bruce had gotten much stronger than before, he didn't know if he could pass this trial.
The profound beasts around Bruce started to make noises and growled at him. Seeing that he had no choice but to fight, Bruce got out his gauntlet.
"I'm not dying here with you bastards!"
"Come on"
The fight began as Bruce mercilessly pummeled the profound beasts in front of him. He also got injured by the stage 4 profound beasts. For some reason, all he felt at that moment was pure rage. The surrounding fire reminded him of something that he could not remember.
The profound beasts started to blast him with their energies while some came onto his body to bite off his neck. Bruce persisted everything as he dodged the blasts and blocked the incoming attacks.
His body began to move differently as if his cells are revitalized and his mind is awakened.
"Heavenly Stars, open!"
Bruce screamed to the sky to gather the energy of the stars to his body. By some miracle, the energy from the stars continuously poured into his body at a much greater rate compared to before. Bruce felt that he was invincible as he pummeled the beasts around him to smithereens.
All elementals energy discharged from his body and crushed the surrounding profound beasts. The remaining profound beasts saw what happened and ran away from Bruce in fear. The easy prey that they initially thought turned into a ruthless monster.
Bruce chased after the profound beasts and continued to pummel them to the ground. Bruce should be feeling happy because he was guaranteed to obtain the inheritance from the legendary Worldly Supreme being, but he didn't feel that way. All he felt were great sadness and rage.
'Why am I feeling like this?'
'Why am I this powerful?'
'Why is this scene so familiar to me?'
These questions popped up in Bruce's mind as he poured his rage onto the profound beasts.
After Bruce defeated 100 stage 4 profound beasts in 2 hours, he didn't stop. He kept on looking for more enemies to fight to distract himself from his current emotions. Unfortunately, he could not find anyone else beside him in the Purgatory Realm.
Bruce looked up to the sky and tears began to fall from his eyes. His mind began to play a scene that he had long forgotten.
In the scene, a small boy held the hand of a tiny girl running happily across the flower field.
The more he looked at the girl, the more familiar she became. He dug deep into his memories but could not recall who she is. Eventually, something popped inside his mind.
"Lydia…" He cried in silent.