The red flames didn't affect the body, their heat targeted only the mental sphere.
David's team was sitting on the burning floor, the flesh and clothes of the cultivators were unaffected by the fire but their expressions showed the struggle that they were going through to resist the pressure on their seas of consciousness.
Noah, like the strongest in his group, was a bit better off.
The speed at which his mental sphere enlarged had increased by a large margin after he bought the fourth Kesier rune, he had resumed training at a higher speed after he secluded himself for the breakthrough in the third rank.
Those months coupled with the three years of training using the "Breath" in his mind put him in a better position compared to the other cultivators in his team, only David and the others in the solid stage of the third rank had a mental sphere that could compare to his.
Also, the third trial didn't target the level of the sea of consciousness but its sturdiness, Noah couldn't have asked for a more suitable test.
'Worthy of the trial that has taken the higher number of lives, no wonder it has taken so much for the exploration teams to cross this point.'
Noah thought after he peeked at the situation of his companions.
The third trial required for the cultivators to endure the heat of the flames for an entire day, many unprepared teams in the past had died inside it.
Even though there were many possible roads inside the labyrinth, the third trial would always feature the same test, more than twenty-five rooms similar to that one had been discovered in the many explorations already and the organizations were sure that the labyrinth had more of them.
Also, it was possible to escape the separate dimension only after passing that test, countless lives had been lost in the attempt to leave the Inheritance ground.
The Chasing demon sect, though, was one of the leading organizations of the archipelago, their resources and information were unmatched.
The sect learnt soon enough the contents of the third trial, the first team that passed the test belonged to one of the underground organizations and, even though it could continue in the exploration, it had decided to escape from the dimension to pass down the information about the test.
That information saved many lives, those of the cultivators belonging to the underground organizations at least.
The cultivators that had passed the information were heavily rewarded, the numbers of lives lost in the third trial had already reached a high number and their services allowed the Hive to preserve a lot of lives.
After all, with the resources held by the underground organizations, even rank 2 mages became able to pass the test.
Hours passed inside the burning room.
The heat of the flames exerted a dense pressure on the mental spheres of the cultivators which attempted to corrode their walls.
The heat could be fought using the mental energy inside the sea of consciousness but doing that would only tire the cultivators faster.
The best approach was to rely on the sturdiness of the mental sphere to repel the corroding force and use the mental energy only when the walls seemed about to give in.
The mental energy would remain around the sphere while the walls recovered and it would be dispersed when they were ready to defend again against the heat, that approach allowed the cultivators to spare a lot of the energy contained in their minds.
Also, they could use drugs that applied a layer of protection around the sea of consciousness, easily allowing them to pass the trial.
The production of those types of drugs had increased a lot in the last two years and the price of those medicines had skyrocketed, any weak mage that wanted to attempt in the exploration of the separate dimension had to purchase them.
Noah didn't bother buying any of those drugs, his mental sphere was strong and he already had a stash of pills that could help him surpass the test if an unexpected situation appeared.
Yet, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Twenty-four hours passed and the flames retracted, the black surface of the room became visible to the exhausted cultivators of David's team.
David turned to inspect his team, they all had pale expressions and the weaker among them also had blood flowing out from their facial orifices, they seemed in deep need of rest.
He was pleasantly surprised though when he saw that Noah was in his same situation, his eye bags and pale complexion couldn't hide his fatigue but he was far better off than his companions.
All in all, only Noah and the four cultivators in the solid stage could move without endangering the integrity of their mental sphere, the other fifteen needed to rest.
Inscriptions lit up on the surface of the room, they gathered in front of David and a token appeared mid-air when the light vanished.
David stored the token and the walls at the end of the room moved as soon as he did that, a passage was created which seemed to lead to deeper parts of the labyrinth.
At the same time, more inscriptions lit up under the other cultivators, tokens began to appear in front of them, signaling the possibility to exit the separate dimension.
"Everything went as planned till now, we are nearing the eighth trial quite quickly, good job everyone!"
David tried to raise everyone's morale before ordering them to rest when what seemed the peal of a bell resonated from a place far in the distance.
The cultivators in the room could understand that the peal came from far away but they were able to hear it clearly, it was as if the dimension itself was trying to convey that sound to the cultivators inside it.
At once, the expressions of the cultivators in the room turned ugly, they all knew what that sound meant, it had been heard only seven times before that moment.
And now, it was heard for the eighth time.
Noah's eyes sharpened at that peal, the reports that he studied made him immediately understand what had happened even if it was his first time hearing that sound.
'The eighth trial has been passed.'