Despite the pressure bearing down on her, the pain in her soul, and the thoughts invading her mind, Mira didn't care about a single one of them. She's already gone through that shit before and at this point, she could barely feel those things.
What Mira truly cared about was how her body caught fire. Not only that, but her body was literally melting at a rather fast pace! Mira was shocked that this fire was even hot enough to melt her. How could she not be shocked?! She literally bathed and reconstructed her body in a pool of magma and started cultivating the Magma Dragon Body. How can fire like this possibly be hot enough to threaten her life?!
Mira tried using her ice to counteract the fire, but she quickly found out she couldn't use it. She then tried using her Qi, but that also seemed to be sealed even though her strength wasn't sealed.
It seemed that although this place allowed her to keep her strength, she wouldn't be able to use any of it and could only rely on her physical strength.
But instead of feeling glad that she at least got to keep some semblance of strength with her, she felt like she was being mocked or made fun of. Mainly because even with her strength, it's not like she can do anything. She can't put out this fire that's about to turn her body into a pile of ashes. She can't prevent the pressure from bearing down on her. She can't prevent her soul from being hurt nor can she prevent those nasty thoughts from invading her mind.
She's just as powerless as she's always been in this place!
The only thing she could do is try and take the next step down, but as soon as she took a step forward she was blocked by some kind of barrier.
"It seems I either need to deal with this fire or let the fire deal with me in order to take the next step. And seeing how it's literally impossible for me to deal with this fire, I'm assuming that I have to 'die' to it before being allowed to take the next step. Sigh… I'm really sick of this place."
Mira muttered to herself and decided to just wait it out. She looked around a bit to make sure she didn't miss anything that could be used in order to prevent herself from burning, but there was absolutely nothing. Only the stone gray stairs and the purplish-black fog were around her.
So instead of putting up a fight, she sat down and waited for her inevitable doom.
Luckily, she didn't have to wait long as her skin started peeling off, then her muscles, bones, organs, and even blood.
Soon, her body was nothing more than a pile of ash while her soul floated out of her body above those ashes.
In the next second, it almost looked like someone turned back time as her body started to rebuild itself, opposite to how she died from the fire. A few seconds later, the ashes that had fallen on the ground had turned into an extremely beautiful loli.
Mira looked exactly how she did right before she caught fire.
Loli Mira sighed in both exasperation and bafflement at how omnipotent this place seemed. And aside from the fear she felt from this place, she was also excited to see what she'll get by the end of all this.
She's been tortured, died and resurrected, experienced multiple lives, and now has to go down these god-forsaken stairs only to be forced to 'die' who knows how many times. At this point, it's hard to say she's actually dying and probably more accurate to say her body has merely changed forms and composition in order to allow her to experience what death is like.
Another thing that fascinated Mira was how little strength meant in this place. Sure, when she fought those Bone Chimeras, she needed strength, but those things were most likely scaled to her level.
She could probably enter this place as a mortal and as long as she has a strong enough will and self-control, she could probably get to where she is currently.
However, finding a mortal with no cultivation that has such a will is infinitely close to impossible. Only a cultivator or someone who has experienced the vicissitudes of time, watched as their loved ones died from old age as they continued to live on, and someone who has experienced the horrors of the world can have such a will.
A mortal could almost never hope to experience such a thing and that's why 99.9999% of mortals who enter this place, no matter how high their will to live is, will definitely die. Not just die, but they most likely won't be able to get past the first test as soon as they enter this shitty ass place.
That's why Mira found this place so interesting even though she was also terrified by it. Because while there isn't any need for strength or cultivation, only cultivators who have lived for a long time could ever hope to pass any of these tests and even then it would be nearly impossible.
Although Mira's not going to confirm this line of thought, she's sure that if she ever thinks something along the lines like "I should just give up", she's dead. Call it instinct or a woman's intuition, but Mira knows that someone or something is keeping a close watch on her mental state.
She has no way to prove it, but she's been through enough shitty situations to know when she's being observed. These instincts have even been honed enough to where she can almost feel it when someone just has thoughts of harming her.
That's why Mira has decided to try and go down these stairs in a nonchalant manner with her head clear of all thoughts other than reaching the end of these stairs.
When her body was rebuilt, she didn't waste any time and took another step. Her theory proved correct as she no longer felt a barrier preventing her from descending to the next step.
However, when Mira reached the second step, the pressure on her increased a bit, the disturbing thoughts invading her mind were a bit more forceful, the pain in her soul was a bit stronger, and now instead of catching fire she felt like she was drowning.
Honestly, the feeling of drowning is terrible even if she is a cultivator who can survive underwater for hours or even days.
Though it seemed things wouldn't be so easy because it didn't take long for her lungs and throat to fill up with water and slowly every part of her body was being filled with water until there was no chance of any air entering or circulating through her body.
Mira struggled to breath and was trying to force the water out of her lungs and throat, but some external force was keeping the water in her body, making sure not a single drop escaped.
She wanted to stop her body from reacting to this suffocation torture, but she couldn't prevent her body's natural responses. She can only try and close her mind off and wait until she dies from asphyxiation.
Minutes went by as her body kept trying to force the water out of her body, but to no avail. Soon, this torture went on for a few hours until all of the oxygen in her body was pushed out and her brain shut down.
Mira's body fell down limp and stayed like that for a few seconds before water started leaking out of every hole and pore on her body. Within a minute, Mira's body was back to how it was before she even set foot on this step.
"GASP! Fuck! That wasn't pleasant! No wonder people always say that drowning is one of the worst ways to die…"
Mira muttered to herself trying to calm down a bit before taking another step down the staircase.