76 The Reunion
"Hahaha" Bruce laughed his hardest when he heard that Sophia's favorite food is chocolate ice cream.
"You!" Sophia furiously punched Bruce's chest with her small hands to stop him from laughing.
"My Sophia's favorite food is chocolate ice cream"
"That's hilarious!" Bruce continued to laugh despite getting pummeled by Sophia.
"Hmph, I'm never telling you anything again!" Sophia blushed despite attempting to look angry.
Seeing how cute Sophia was, Bruce stopped laughing and came close to her.
"Then I shall make my goddess the most delicious chocolate ice cream to change her mind" Bruce whispered in her ears.
Sophia blushed even more as her ears turned bright red.
"Wait a moment while I make your dessert" Bruce said with a smile.
Sophia sat on the sofa patiently as Bruce got out milk and cream to make the ice cream. With his perfect control over the water element, it was trivial for him to create the perfect ice cream as he perfectly controlled the temperature of the mixture. Compared to Meredith's exorbitant requests, Sophia's request is much simpler.
After mixing the chocolate with the mixture, the dessert was complete. Bruce put the chocolate in a fancy bowl and presented it to Sophia.
"Here you go, my lady" Bruce smiled when he saw Sophia gulp at his creation.
He couldn't believe that the goddess that everyone worshiped was into chocolate ice cream that much. Nevertheless, he'll indulge her with it until she gets tired of it.
"This is delicious!" Sophia exclaimed as she devoured the entire bowl.
"Calm down, I'll make you some more" Bruce didn't expect Sophia to enjoy the ice cream that much.
"I'll have five more portions please" Sophia raised up her entire hand when sending out the requests.
"Five portions? You should save your appetite for dinner" Bruce didn't think it was wise for Sophia to eat that much amount of ice cream before dinner.
"Hmph, are you going to make them or not?" Sophia ignored Bruce's advice and glared at him coldly.
"Your wish is my command" Bruce gave up and went back to the kitchen to make the beauty her ice cream. At this rate, he would turn into a full-time chef to satisfy his girlfriends.
"Bruce, I noticed that you looked more tired than before. What happened?" Sophia asked.
"Maybe it's because I'm making five portions of ice cream" Bruce wanted to cry but had no tears.
"Nonsense!" Sophia disagreed.
"You were tired the moment you walked through the door"
"Oh, that's because I tried out a taboo technique at the training ground" Bruce replied while making the ice cream.
"Taboo?" Sophia's eyebrows creased up slightly.
"It's a technique that I learned recently from the Imperial Academy Library" Bruce explained.
"I see, well you shouldn't use it until your body can handle it" Sophia knew Bruce very well. Almost every technique that he uses would be considered taboo for everyone as the techniques are extremely gruesome on the user's body.
Only a freak of nature like Bruce could handle those techniques. For him to faint after using a taboo technique means that the technique is incredibly dangerous for anyone else.
"By my estimate, I should be able to handle it somewhat when I reach the Divine Emperor realm" Bruce reassured Sophia as he wanted to use World Breaker in combat. The feeling of having the world in his palm was exhilarating.
"Speaking of the Divine Emperor realm, when are you allowed to leave the Imperial Academy?" Sophia asked.
"Only when I can defend myself against Great Emperor experts"
"You're kidding right?" Sophia didn't like the condition one bit.
"Nope, my teacher informed me that it's likely that Great Emperors from the Dark Forces and other assassin organizations will make an attempt on my life" Bruce hated to be chained up in the Imperial Academy, but this is the best solution.
"So, you think that you'll need to reach the Divine Emperor realm to protect yourself against Great Emperors?" Sophia asked.
"It's very possible that my strength will be on par with a Great Emperor once I reach the Divine Emperor realm"
"After all, my strength is already on par with an early stage Divine Emperor" Bruce explained his thoughts to Sophia. He was confident that it would take him a maximum of 3 years to reach the Divine Emperor realm. Then, he'd be able to see his family again.
"Bruce, there is a huge gap between Divine Emperors and Great Emperors" Sophia began to share her thoughts on the matter since she had witnessed the strengths of Great Emperors.
"The Great Emperor realm has 9 stages, with every stage more difficult to reach than the previous one"
"If a Great Emperor at the 8th extreme attacks you, it's very likely that you'll die even if you're at Divine Emperor."
"You think so?" Bruce stopped whisking the mixture and looked at Sophia.
"Mhm, I would dare say that the gap between the Great Emperor at 1st Extreme and Great Emperor at 8th Extreme is similar to the gap between Divine Emperor and Soul Manifestation"
"So, it's very likely that you have to reach Great Emperor 1st Extreme before you are truly safe" Sophia concluded.
"How long would that take?" Bruce didn't feel good about his situation anymore.
"Let's see, it takes about 500 years for a prodigy to reach Divine Emperor"
"Another 10,000 years for that prodigy to reach the Great Emperor realm"
"Given your talents, I'd estimate about 500 years or so to reach the Great Emperor realm" Sophia actually gave Bruce a very good estimate. By conservative estimate, it would take Bruce at least 1000 years to reach the Great Emperor realm.
"You're joking…" Bruce turned depressed after hearing that he will have to stay at the Imperial Academy for hundreds of years before he can go out.
"Bruce, there are only a few Great Emperors on the continent because it's almost impossible to reach the Great Emperor realm"
"This is why Worldly Supreme is considered as a fable stage because most Great Emperors don't even live long enough to break through" Sophia explained as this knowledge was passed down to her from her father. Only a selected few on the continent would know about the progression to the Great Emperor realm.
"If I follow that man's path, I'm sure I'll be able to reach Worldly Supreme in 100 years" Bruce recalled the scene in his mind and snapped out of his depression. The man looked as young as him and was already at the pinnacle. Bruce felt that his destiny was to follow in that man's footsteps.
"What man?" Sophia didn't know who Bruce implied.
"I'll explain later" Bruce smiled and continued to make the ice cream. It was not the right time to reveal what he had seen in the trial to his significant others.
After 20 minutes, five portions of ice cream appeared in front of Sophia. She excitedly looked at the marvelous feast in front of her and happily enjoyed the dessert to her fullest.
Seeing how happy Sophia was, Bruce felt joy in his heart. He realized why his teacher became a chef. The moment only lasted momentarily before someone interrupted the date.
"Bruce, I'm back!" Chef John yelled as he kicked down the door.
"Teacher, I told you to knock on my door!" Bruce had told his teacher and Deion thousand times to knock on his door instead of kicking it down every time.
"Look who I brought with me" Chef John ignored Bruce's complaints and showed him the people who stood behind him.
"Mom… Dad…." Bruce began to tear up when he saw the familiar faces behind his teacher.
"My beautiful boy!" Elizabeth dashed in front of Bruce and hugged him tightly.
"You've grown into a fine young man, son" Logan teared up as well. He had missed his son greatly over the past 6 years.
"Oh my, you seem to forget about your dear grandma" Jennifer teared up as well as she saw her grandson for the first time in 6 years.
"How could I forget my grandma?" Bruce hugged Jennifer tightly. He couldn't believe he got to see his family again this early.
While everyone was enjoying the reunion, John saw Sophia in the background happily eating ice cream.
"Bruce, who is this lady?" John asked.
Everyone's attention turned to the extremely beautiful girl who sat on the couch. Sophia blushed a little and put down the bowl of chocolate ice cream.
"Everyone, this is my girlfriend, Sophia Bennet" Bruce introduced Sophia to everyone.
"Hello everyone…" Sophia meekly introduced herself as it was her first time meeting Bruce's family and possibly her future in-laws.
"Oh my… How beautiful" Elizabeth looked at Sophia closely and found no flaws in the girl. She couldn't believe her son managed to land such a perfect lady as his girlfriend.
"Wait… Isn't Meredith Lockwood your girlfriend?" John felt something was wrong because Meredith was already betrothed to Bruce according to Ancestor Lockwood.
"Son, are you creating a harem?" Logan asked with tears in his eyes.
