Over the period of one month, Bruce had to constantly endure the raging waves as they slammed against his body. His body had to adapt to the waves. The only way to do so was by absorbing the darkness energy carried inside the wave at a rapid speed.
Similarly, to the death energy in Nether Realm, the darkness energy in the river was also extremely pure. Bruce felt his body slowly changing day by day as he adapted to the environment. On the 25th day, it was no longer an issue for him to stay in the River of Darkness.
Bruce silently cultivated the pure darkness energy to grow even stronger. He felt that he was very close to the Peak Stage of Divine King.
On the 29th day, Bruce did something insane. Instead of standing in the middle of the riverbank waiting for the waves to hit him, he moved forward to the river source. In order to complete the trial, he must gain the necessary powers.
Aegon will surely pull him out of the river once the time limit has been reached. Bruce needed a bit more energy before breaking through to Peak Stage Divine King.
When he reached the river source, he couldn't believe what was in front of his eyes.
The entire place was filled with the corpses of dark dragons!
The immense powers of the corpses seeped into the river and created raging tidal waves. It was as if multiple thunder-winged tigers were in the same place, Bruce concluded.
Bruce sat down in the river source and attempted to break through to Peak Stage Divine King. If he needed more energy for the breakthrough, his body would automatically gather the necessary resources from his surroundings.
After one day, his meridians were completely saturated with pure energy from the dark dragons.
'Let's do this!'
Bruce's aura began to rise up rapidly as he attempted the breakthrough. For a brief moment, his aura began to be unstable as it went up and down a few times. Seeing that his body was unstable due to rapid growth in one month, Bruce used Vermillion Fusion to stabilize his body and soul.
His aura began to rise again rapidly without any instability. Eventually, it stopped because he had reached Peak Stage Divine King.
Bruce let out a sigh of relief and tested out his new strengths as the tidal waves from the River of Darkness attempted to destroy him. Unlike before, Bruce could no longer feel anything from the incoming wave attacks, even as he stood at the center of the river source.
Nevertheless, he still continued to cultivate here before the time expires because the endless pure darkness energy still surrounded the area.
After the 31st day passed, Aegon teleported Bruce out of the River of Darkness.
"I'm surprised you didn't perish in there" Aegon said with a heavy tone.
"Thank you for lending me an opportunity to get stronger" Bruce bowed to Aegon and ignored his offensive remark. It was clear to Bruce that the first trial was designed to support him.
"Not bad" Aegon slightly nodded.
"The second trial awaits you shortly"
Suddenly, Aegon teleported Bruce to a floating platform in the sky.
"Up above the sky is a flag protected by my descendants"
"You will need to obtain the flag to pass the second trial"
"Oh, is that all?" Bruce was quite surprised at the simplicity of the second trial.
"My descendants will continuously shoot you down from the sky as you try to reach the flag"
"They will also attack you physically as well"
"You have 6 months to complete the second trial"
"If you don't complete the task in 6 months, you will die"
"If you are careless during the trial, my descendants will kill you"
"That is all"
Aegon disappeared leaving Bruce alone on the floating platform.
The trial sounded impossible, but Bruce secretly smiled. After all, his new gauntlet makes him immune to darkness attacks.
"Oh, and you are not allowed to use any weapon in this trial" Aegon's voice rang out and threw cold water onto Bruce's head.
'Fuck!' He secretly cursed the dragon and began to come up with different plans to steal the flag.
The most obvious one was to stealth himself and steal the flag under the dragons' noses.
Bruce covered himself in darkness and completely hid his presence. He sneakily flew up to the sky to steal the flag just to find hundreds of darkness blasts aiming at his location.
'Fuck, I forgot these dragons are sensitive to the darkness element' Bruce rapidly retreated down to the floating platform before he realized that the blasts continued to follow him. Bruce jumped from the platform before it got destroyed by the dragon's attack.
He began to fly around to look for a hidden spot. Unluckily, as he looked around, he found several dragons at Great Emperor strength by his side ready to kill him. Though their strengths have been restricted to the 1st extreme level, Bruce was still unable to match against the dragons.
Bruce tried his best to move around but the dragons kept attacking him with their claws. Meanwhile, the terrifying darkness blasts kept raining on his head. Seeing no way out, Bruce began to fight back and quickly realized that the dragons were not seriously aiming to kill him. If they did, he would have died immediately.
'So, this trial is to train my combat prowess' Bruce finally realized the objective of the second trial. Bruce could not help but be thankful. Though he would definitely die if he made any stupid mistake during the trial, if he kept his guard up the entire time, he would be able to gain valuable battle experience against Great Emperor beings.
"Everyone, let's have some fun" Bruce raised up his fists and began to attack the surrounding dragons while dodging for his life. He felt his entire being awakened and his senses risen to the extreme level.
While Bruce continuously battled for the dragons for 6 months, Ariel steadily climbed up the ranking in Hell Spire. Like Bruce, she was a dark horse that won every match. That is until she reached the 10th floor.
Unlike Bruce who had to battle 100 Peak Stage Divine Emperor puppets, Ariel had to face a powerful opponent.
[Contestants, please get ready for battle]
Ariel narrowed her eyes when she saw her opponent, a Great Emperor!
Not only was this person a Great Emperor, but his aura was also extremely deep which implied that his powers were beyond the early extreme levels of Great Emperor. How could such a powerful person be on the 10th floor of the hell Spire?
"Sorry doll face, but your journey ends here" The man taunted Ariel.
Ariel didn't say anything and immediately slashed her sword toward her opponent.
"Didn't I tell you it's over?"
A creepy voice appeared by her side and within that quick moment, her body was pierced by countless knives.
Ariel fell to the ground and spurted out blood. Her consciousness slowly faded away as she heard the last words from her opponent.
"As per his majesty's instruction, you're not allowed to grow stronger just yet"