The third trial tested mental resilience. Participants were placed inside a special Array and subjected to its immense mental pressure. The process was excruciating, with the pain intensifying over time.
Scores were based on how long one could endure—one point for every minute, with twenty minutes earning a perfect score.
The moment Mo Qi stepped into the Array's range, his vision went black. A sharp pain shot through his mind, as if a hand were trying to rip his soul from his body.
He gritted his teeth and fought back against the force.
He knew that if he failed to resist and his soul was extracted, the trial would be over.
The pain quickly spread throughout his body. It felt as if countless blades were constantly scraping across his skin, grating on his nerves.
"Ugh... Is this all there is to it?" Mo Qi muttered, quickly growing accustomed to the pain after a brief adjustment period.
In all his years of training to master the Sword Skill Uncle Niu had taught him—to split a single hair into thirteen thousand six hundred strands—he had endured more suffering than he could possibly count.
Often, when he swung his blade too quickly or with too much force, he would lose control and accidentally cut himself.
A single practice session with one strand of hair could leave him with hundreds of self-inflicted cuts.
On several occasions, his mistakes were so severe that he nearly dismembered himself.
If not for the precious ingredients provided by his wealthy patrons and the Chaos Scripture nourishing his flesh, he would have likely trained himself to death long ago.
So, if the third trial was merely the familiar pain of flesh wounds, he could probably fall asleep in this environment.
Mental resilience was one thing he had in spades.
One minute... two minutes... five minutes... ten minutes...
As time wore on, the pain intensified. Mo Qi frowned slightly. Although the agony now far surpassed that of a mere flesh wound, it was nowhere near his limit.
"Why doesn't he look like he's in pain at all?" someone in the great hall asked, pointing at the light screen.
"It's more than that. Have you noticed he hasn't even broken a sweat?"
"This isn't normal. I remember when Fang Min took the trial yesterday, she screamed for a long time and nearly wet herself at the end," said someone who had watched her test.
Hearing this, Fang Min's expression turned foul. Since the speaker dared to say it to her face, they clearly weren't afraid of Wang Hao.
'This damned good-for-nothing!' she fumed, transferring all her hatred onto Mo Qi. 'He's just a lowly servant, born to suffer!'
"Elder, forgive my impudence, but I must ask you to verify whether the Array has been properly activated," Wang Hao couldn't resist suggesting to the Inspector Elder.
Although the Inspector Elder was displeased, he was also curious. 'Could the Array for the third trial actually be malfunctioning?'
He had never seen anyone withstand the third trial's torture without so much as a change in expression.
"Since you have your doubts, why don't you go verify it yourself?"
Before Wang Hao could object, the Inspector Elder opened the Obsidian Gate and tossed him inside.
Before Wang Hao could even react, the world spun around him as he tumbled into the Array.
A tsunami of pain instantly overwhelmed Wang Hao's mind. This wasn't the initial level of agony; this was the mental pressure of an Array that had been running for over ten minutes.
Had he been subjected to the pain gradually, Wang Hao's Cultivation would have been enough to endure it. But hit with such intensity all at once, he didn't last a single second before the Array ripped his soul out. Eliminated!
When the Inspector Elder fished Wang Hao out of the Array, the young man was completely spent. His face was ashen, and a foul, pungent odor emanated from his crotch—the pain had been so intense he had pissed his pants.
The crowd roared with laughter. It wasn't every day you got to see the grandson of the esteemed Third Elder piss his pants.
"How interesting." On the second floor, Liu Hong stroked his beard. His right hand quickly formed an Array Talisman, and just as the Obsidian Gate was closing, he shot it into the Array of the third trial.
His movements were so covert that no one noticed, not even the Inspector Elder.
"So? Is the Array working normally?" the Inspector Elder asked with a sneer, though inwardly he was stunned by Mo Qi's performance.
'This man is either unbelievably resilient or a complete madman.'
Wang Hao nodded without a word, a venomous hatred flashing in his eyes.
'I will have my revenge! I'll make sure Mo Qi dies a horrible death!'
'And it's not just Mo Qi. I won't let the Inspector Elder get away with this either.'
If Wang Hao had initially approached Mo Qi with the intention of toying with him, he was now starting to take him seriously.
He used his True Essence to dry his clothes, then returned to Fang Min's side with a cold expression.
Though he had been utterly humiliated and wished the ground would swallow him whole, Wang Hao didn't leave. He had to watch Mo Qi die with his own eyes.
'So what if he's strong and isn't afraid of pain? I'd like to see how you get through the fourth trial!'
The entrance trials were so risky and had such a high mortality rate precisely because the fourth trial tested one's combat sense. It was a real life-or-death battle: either you passed, or you died.
"Wait, Chef Mo is showing a reaction!"
Those who had been watching Mo Qi closely suddenly noticed an expression of pain on his face.
For some reason, seeing Mo Qi finally show a reaction, the crowd collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
His physical constitution had already terrified everyone; if his mental resilience was also impeccable, how was anyone else supposed to compete? He was just a servant, after all!
Inside the Array, Mo Qi had been calculating that at the current rate the pain was increasing, he could hold out not just for twenty minutes, but for four hours.