At the headquarter of the Alliance of Kingdoms, the leadership converged for an emergency meeting.
"John, tell us what happened" Carmen said as he sat at the front of the table.
"Bruce had disappeared from the Imperial Academy. It appears that he wanted to train by himself" John spoke slowly.
"How did he disappear? I thought both of you locked onto his aura the entire time" Carmen looked at John and Steven.
"I'm not entirely sure. I locked on his aura the entire time and he suddenly vanished" John shook his head.
"It must be a stealth technique stemmed from his darkness attribute" Ancestor Solomon guessed.
"Is there such a stealth technique that would escape the eyes of the Great Emperor?" Ancestor Lockwood couldn't believe that a Divine King can manage to escape a Great Emperor.
"Anything is possible with that boy" Headmaster Steven chimed in.
"Didn't I tell you guys that he unlocked the secret to Worldly Supreme the other day?"
"Indeed, you're right Steven" Carmen nodded.
"Bruce is an entirely different beast compared to anyone. It's likely that he managed to master a stealth technique that could escape our scrutiny" Carmen concluded.
"So, what should we do?" Ancestor Solomon asked.
"We hide his disappearance and tell the outside world that the Prince of the Alliance Kingdom is undergoing seclusion" Carmen laid out a game plan.
"People will be suspicious if they haven't seen him for a long time"
"Then so be it. We can only hope that he'll return safely" Carmen sighed.
"If he does manage to return, I wonder what kind of monster he will become" Ancestor Lockwood mused.
"I'm sure he will surprise us all once again. Make sure to protect his family until he returns!" Carmen concluded the meeting, and everyone went back to their kingdoms.
Back in Meredith's house, two beautiful figures were sleeping on a large bed.
Meredith slowly opened her eyes and found no trace of Bruce. She stood up and remembered the last moments she had with him.
"Miss him?" Sophia asked as she lightly stretched her beautiful body.
"Yeah… What should we do?" Meredith started to cry again.
"Get stronger as fast as possible" Sophia replied with fiery determination in her eyes.
In the Nether Realm, a young man sat still inside a forest sitting cross-legged. Many divine beasts have targeted him as prey for the past month but died under his hands.
The other beasts in the forest saw what happened and became fearful of him. His days went by as no beasts dared to tread near his path.
"It's been one month, have you made any progress?" The Monarch yawned as he just woke up from his slumber.
"I have successfully integrated with this realm. I can easily cultivate death energy now" Bruce smiled.
"Good, now you must find other beings in this realm and kill them"
"Which way should I go?" Bruce asked.
"How should I know? figure it out yourself!" The Monarch replied in an annoyed tone.
Bruce shook his head and got up from the floor. Seeing that the beasts in the forest have hidden, Bruce smiled. Even though he didn't kill that many divine beasts over the past month, his cultivation has grown tremendously.
Before leaving, Bruce attempt to breakthrough to Mid Stage Divine King using all his 700,000 high energy crystals. However, he was unable to breakthrough. After one month of cultivating the energy from the Nether Realm and the divine beasts, he finally managed to breakthrough to Mid Stage Divine King.
Bruce left the forest and spread his soul as far as he can to search for other beings. As he continually moved forward, he found more divine beasts to kill. The same process continued until he found a city sitting in the middle of nowhere.
He curiously walked to the village only to find three people snuck up on him.
"DIE!" The demon yelled.
Bruce blocked the attack with his bare hand and kicked the demon in the chest.
"WHAT?" The other two demons were shocked. How could a Divine King brat be that powerful?
"Kill him together" The demon that got kicked by Bruce yelled from the ground.
The other two demons nodded and released their domains. A fire and ice domain formed above Bruce's head. Bruce changed his body position into a dragon stance and began to attack as well.
"Dragon Ascend"
Bruce's entire body began to glow as a golden dragon image appeared behind him. The dragon arrogantly looked down on the demons and deflected the effects of the domains.
The demons created a fire and ice arrow capable of mass destruction and shot it at Bruce.
Bruce stood still in his stance and combined all his elements together. He slowly raised his fist and punched the air in the direction of the demons.
A dragon formed from his fist and directly collided with the arrow. A massive explosion occurred midair with the dragon completely obliterating the arrow and heading toward the demon.
"SHIT!" The demons screamed but it was too late.
The dragon collided against their bodies and destroyed their internal organs.
Bruce walked by their corpses and absorbed their death energy. The energy was much purer and more powerful than those of the divine beasts. Bruce licked his lips after eating the delicious meal and headed toward the city.
Bruce was slightly taken aback when he entered the city. All kinds of beings from different races were in the city. The entire city was vibrant with people from all walks of life. Even the buildings were not too shabby either. For a place that was supposed to be similar to hell, it was fantastic.
Bruce always kept his guard up as he walked around the city. He found Divine Emperors and Divine Kings almost everywhere. He didn't understand why battles haven't broken out yet.
"Hey young man, are you new here?" A powerful voice called out to Bruce.
Bruce turned around and saw a middle-aged man smiling at him.
"Yes, sir. I just arrived at the Nether Realm recently" Bruce politely spoke with the man.
"I see. Come with me and I'll give you a tour" The middle-aged man gestured for Bruce to come forward.
Bruce nodded and walked toward the man.
"Just to give you a brief layout of the nether realm, the realm is split into three regions"
"We are in the lowest region, The Abyss"
"The next region is The Depth"
"Lastly, the highest region is The Void."
"Why is the Nether Realm separated into three regions?" Bruce asked.
"It is because different rules are applied to different regions" The man took a sip of wine.
"Great Emperors are forbidden to attack in the Abyss unless they are provoked"
"Likewise, Worldly Supremes are forbidden to attack The Depth and The Abyss unless they are provoked"
Bruce frowned slightly when he heard the explanation. He couldn't comprehend the intentions of the creator of the Nether Realm.
"I know what you're thinking. Isn't Nether Realm the greatest place or what?" The man laughed.
"Uh, I wasn't thinking that…" Bruce corrected the man.
"You should! I've been here for hundreds of years even though I started out with a cultivation base of Soul Manifestation"
"You managed to survive in here that long?" Bruce was surprised.
"For vengeful people like us, Nether Realm is the best place to live. If you manage to join one of the three prestigious factions, you can steadily increase your cultivations!"
"How do you know I'm vengeful?" Bruce asked.
"Young man, didn't you know that only vengeful souls could enter the Nether Realm?" The middle-aged man frowned at Bruce.
Bruce quickly caught on and corrected his behavior.
"Sorry mister, my world is very weak. I didn't know anything about the Nether Realm until I arrived here" Bruce apologetically said.
"You should have known about this during the orientation process but I guess I can explain it again" The middle-aged man sighed.
"Basically, if you were terribly wronged before you die then there is a high chance that your soul would be transported to the Nether Realm."
"Due to too much negative energy in your soul, the laws of the universe would transport your soul to this realm instead of reincarnation"
Bruce was completely flabbergasted after hearing about the background of the Nether Realm. This place was a complete freak show!
"Wait, so you're saying that the people who are here were simply too angry to die?" Bruce nervously asked.
"That sounds about right" The middle-aged man nodded.
'What the fuck!'
'What did I get myself into?' Bruce internally cried.