Liam’s superhuman perception became a double-edged sword. He sensed everything, and the experience was too overwhelming for the mind of a mere rooting expert.

The world didn’t transform. The previous one just vanished, replaced by something that forced Liam’s perception to reset and sense everything from scratch.

Luckily, the event only lasted a fraction of a second, and Liam’s senses soon caught up with everything.

Liam found himself in a world of white and grey shades, with homogeneous illumination granting a perfect view of everything while preventing the existence of shadows.

The place felt incredibly vast, so much so that Liam’s ears, nose, and mouth failed to find its boundaries. Every sensation was even strangely faint, as if the area’s fabric wasn’t meant to have any distinctive smell.

Moreover, everything felt deeply unnatural, from the tall white ceiling to the smooth floor of a dimmer shade and the pristine grey walls that connected the two. It wasn’t the fakeness that formation featured, but Liam instinctively flagged it as wrong.

But everything wasn’t just wrong. It was powerful and reeking of awe-inspiring Qi, carrying none of the frailty Liam had started to see in the world.

And, surprisingly, Liam had a comparison that could work to describe the area.

’Is this a space-ring?’ Liam gasped internally.

Be it the illumination or the place’s unique fabric, Liam spotted vague resemblances to his ring’s ethereal environment. Everything was simply so powerful that it matched and surpassed reality.

Of course, adding the place’s size put much into perspective. The theory behind space-rings seemed to be a work there, just on a scale that sounded impossible. It wasn’t a mere room. It was a proper world.

"So, this is a separate dimension," Robert commented, stomping his bare feet on the white floor, testing it. "It sure is something."

’That’s what it’s called,’ Liam mentally recorded. He was standing next to the rest of his teammates. He had noticed them long ago. Inspecting the environment had simply taken priority.

Yet, now that Liam focused on his teammates, something else stood out. Julian was also inspecting his surroundings, his curiosity not as apparent as Robert’s but still revealing the novelty of the experience.

Meanwhile, Isabel and Lancelot just looked around, the former calmly, while the latter with an excited smile. They were studying the place, too, but not due to its unique nature.

At least, that was what Liam’s perception told him.

"The Secret Jade Sect employs separate dimensions," Isabel revealed when she sensed Liam’s gaze. "Though they are far simpler in nature. Archbishop Ignatius’ inheritance truly is a work of art."

’The Inner Circles are on another level,’ Liam thought. The Pale Moon Sect’s missions involved collecting magical beasts’ dung, while the Secret Jade Sect had separate dimensions as facilities. That wasn’t even the same playing field.

There was something else to the area. Two corridors stretched in opposite directions, being mandatory paths due to the walls connecting floor and ceiling, and the one between them featured something that soon attracted the five’s eyes.

’From a man to all men,’ Liam read the writing on the wall, feeling something profound inside him resonating with it, as if those words were meant to trigger a magical, emotional reaction.

’Again with that word,’ Liam thought, feeling some awe. Centuries had passed, but that writing still carried a strange power, vouching for the incredible figure Archbishop Ignatius had been.

"Julian," Lancelot eventually called, his smile dimming, having grown bored of standing still. "What do you make of this place?"

Julian ceremoniously knelt, closing his eyes and placing a hand on the floor. His Qi moved, trying to flow into that surface, but nothing happened, not until the smell of blood reached Liam’s nostrils.

Something intense flared alongside that smell, an intention rather than energy, and the floor reacted to it. Barely noticeable tremors spread under the surface, shooting through the hall to delve into the two passages and further still.

Meanwhile, the stench of blood intensified. Red lines spread from under Julian’s palm while a frown afflicted his closed eyes. He seemed to be struggling while an intricate geometrical shape came to be, until his hand snapped up.

Julian breathed deeply as the lines of blood on the floor lost their precise edges, expanding into puddles that merged into one. He quickly steadied himself, looking up at Lancelot to reveal his discoveries.

"It’s a maze," Julian explained, "With peculiar restrictions. It does nothing against mapping it, but the pressure on my Qi intensified with each turn."

"Just a maze?" Lancelot wondered, his smile completely disappearing as he glanced at the two corridors. "That’s so not interesting."

"It’s probably to filter out the majority of the challengers," Julian guessed, standing up, drawing a tissue from his robe to clean his blood-stained hand. "Those lacking the resolve to advance through identical environments with increasing pressure can’t be worthy of entering the inheritance’s deeper trials."

"What do you suggest?" Lancelot asked.

"Gradual exploration," Julian responded. "The areas I’ll be able to map out will shrink as the pressure increases, but it’s the only way. I’ll also see if I can mark these walls to differentiate them."

"Sister, carry me," Lancelot groaned, stretching his arms toward Isabel. "I’ll just sleep."

’This feels familiar,’ Liam thought, mentioning the matter before Isabel could strike Lancelot. "Can’t we just follow the Church’s teams? They should know the way, don’t they?"

Four pairs of eyes turned toward Liam’s hood. Lancelot didn’t even lower his arms due to his surprise.

"And the walls are all different," Liam added. "They might have been identical initially, but they all wore out separately."

It was actually a first for Liam to see something so identical. That was the most unnatural part of that environment, but time had been stronger than Archbishop Ignatius. While slight, the energy and shades the walls, floor, and ceiling radiated featured traces of heterogeneous decay.

Nothing was even close to breaking, but Liam could imagine the separate dimension eventually collapsing due to erosion or having run out of the energy that kept it standing. Just like his ring’s ethereal room, that massive area wasn’t eternal.

Lancelot looked at Julian. Despite his character, he respected the assigned roles, so Julian had to have the final word.

"Master William, how do you know where the Church’s teams went?" Julian asked.

"I smell them," Liam revealed, pointing at the corridor to the left. "They went that way."

The pairs of perplexed eyes went from four to three since one supported Liam’s claim.

"Wait, he is right," Robert exclaimed, sniffing loudly, his head moving left and right. "I wouldn’t have noticed it if he hadn’t pointed it out, but the smell is here."

Julian checked Robert before lifting his palm and closing his eyes. A drop of blood escaped his skin, evaporating into a patch of red mist.

The mist hovered above Julian’s palm before it caught on something, flying toward the corridor on the left, leaving a thin red trail in the air that dimmed the farther it went.

"Master William is indeed correct," Julian said once he reopened his eyes and lowered his hand, which made the red trail disappear. "This environment helped preserve traces of the Church’s teams’ passage."

"I smelled it, too," Robert scoffed, glaring at Julian. "Am I not correct also?"

"Fellow Daoist, is your sense of worth so frail as to need constant validation?" Julian calmly mocked.

"Master William," Lancelot called, his heated smile returning, his presence conveying that heavy excitement. "How much did you hold back during our fight?"

"Young Master, don’t be impolite," Isabel scolded. "You can ask Master William for a rematch after we claim the inheritance."

Liam didn’t know where to look in that embodiment of dysfunctional teamwork, so he just pointed at the left corridor again and expressed his doubts. "Do we go or ...?"