Chapter 399 - 399. Five corridors
David continued to assault his opponent, his corner of the arena was soon filled with flames due to the reckless assault of his flame-beasts.
Then, a flame-arrow hit the inscribed woman's head, finally ending the battle.
David had won before the other three solid stage cultivators in his team!
He then dispersed his spells and turned his head toward the other areas of the battlefield.
His gaze lingered shortly on the battle of his three companions before moving toward Noah.
Noah stared him back, he was paying attention to the battlefield too as he sat cross-legged on top of Heilong to refill his dantian, he could see the traces of surprise in his captain's eyes as he looked at him.
'No wonder he is our captain.'
Noah thought before David nodded, Noah's performance in the separate dimension had surpassed all his expectations, that gesture was his way to formally recognize his power.
He then sat too, there was no reason to help the other three, they were just using their numerical advantage to slowly exhaust their enemies, it was a safe approach in a situation that didn't require them to go all out.
It took about twenty minutes for the remaining two inscribed cultivators to deplete their reserves of energies and being killed by the joint assault of the three solid stage cultivators, their figures quickly vanished as fatal wounds were inflicted on their bodies.
All the enemies had been defeated!
The formations in the area lit up as soon as the last inscribed cultivator vanished, the sandy walls on the opposite side from where David's group came from moved, creating a passage that led deeper into the mountain range.
"Good work everyone, let's rest now."
David ordered before closing his eyes to focus on his recovery, the others did the same without adding a word.
An entire day passed, the five cultivators sat silently and then slept to quicken their recovery.
Then, they formed a circle right in front of the corridor that had just opened.
"There were no rewards this time, this should be a good sign."
Cora spoke as she scratched her space-ring, the absence of rewards after such a tough battle was disappointing but that could only be explained by the fact that they were getting closer to the end of the dimension.
"It's probably a method to preserve resources. The ninth trial gave spells to anyone surviving the fall through the void, it means that the creator isn't sure that we will survive the next tests."
Noah added.
He had been in two different Inheritance grounds already and met with a creator.
There was always some kind of purpose behind the creation of a separate dimension, it wouldn't make sense to spend a large deal of effort and resources otherwise.
"It is strange though. The trials in the labyrinth had specific requirements while all of that was thrown away after the ninth test… I wonder what the creator was thinking when he set all of this up."
Nate gave voice to everyone's doubts.
His complaints were on point, it seemed as if the trials had purposely skimmed the cultivators in each team to allow only the most complete ones to reach the seabed.
"No point thinking about that now, we will ask the creator once we reach the end."
David spoke as he stood up.
The others in his group understood the meaning behind his actions, they were going to continue in the exploration!
The other part of the corridor was identical to the first part, tall pillars and inscriptions filled the large azure passage.
The light of the inscriptions continued to scan the cultivators and their centers of power, Noah guessed that even the next test would feature humans.
'I hope that the copy of our team has killed its opponents, it would be a problem if my powers were to be exposed.'
Noah thought as he imagined his copy recklessly entering the complete Demonic form to fight the other cultivators in the mountain ranges.
'It shouldn't be a problem if the copy was sent against the real version of our opponents, we were stronger than them after all, but I can't be sure of that.'
The march through the corridor gave him a lot of time to think, he couldn't help but feel worried about his identity being revealed.
'Well, I'm not on my own right now, I have the backing of one of the most powerful organizations in the archipelago… Everything should be fine.'
Noah suppressed those thoughts as he continued to walk with his team, he was still in the Inheritance ground after all, his biggest problem was surviving the trials.
It took even more than last time for a change in the scenery to appear.
After about one and a half weeks of travel, David's group saw how the corridor divided itself into five different passages.
Hesitation could be seen in David's eyes as he inspected the passages, no matter how much he probed, he couldn't find any difference between them.
"Let's go to the central one."
David spoke, leading his group into the central passage.
The familiar corridor appeared but, that time, it took only one day for a change in the scenery to occur.
The five cultivators were surprised to see that the same five passages had reappeared in front of them!
"Were we teleported back?"
Helga asked but none of her companions could give her an answer, they were as confused as her.
David took an orb from his space-ring and activated it before leading his teammates into the leftmost passage.
The scenery was the same and, after exactly one day of travel, the same passages appeared and a shining orb was hovering in the air in front of them.
It was clear now that they were stuck in a sort of loop!
"Let's try all of them before evaluating other possibilities."
David ordered as he led his team through the rightmost passage.
The same event occurred, they reached again the five branches of the corridor after marching for one day.
No one spoke that time, the group went directly for the remaining corridors only to find out that they always bought them back at their entrances.
The felt confused, they had wasted five days already in that spot but they had no idea how to advance.
Then, Noah had an idea when he thought about Nate's words.
"The creator allowed us to face the trials with teams but the trials slowly forced us to separate. We fought five cultivators in the previous test but we know that there are more and less numerous teams. Also, their power was similar to ours but we know that there are more and less powerful teams. Five passages, five cultivators…"
Noah's eyes shone with understanding as his gaze went on the entrances in front of him, he was beginning to understand the reason behind the Inheritance ground's layout.