At the First Martial Meeting

This was the first martial meeting that was being held by the Profound Cloud Sect ever since they had taken control of the surrounding mountains.

And they had resumed the every 3 year martial meeting this year in order to select the brightest and the most talented cultivators to their ranks.

This martial meeting was a close door competition and the candidates must also be willing to embrace death if this befalls them.

After Ye Fan had registered his name using his invitation card, a profound tracer with his name on it was placed in his soul sea; this was to convenient the examinators to know who was who during the trial and thereafter.

He was now among the 860 candidates that were in this First Martial Meeting of the Profound Cloud Sect and among the 860 candidates, there were 33 candidates from the Profound Cloud Sect itself.

Most of the candidates were actually young rookies and they were all nervously looking at one another.

In the Dragontooth Grand Continent, mortality is extremely high and joining a celestial sect can halve the chances of dying from sickness, monster attacks and attacks from the other celestial sects.

It may not be that much but the cultivators from the celestial sects have long lives when compared to the mortals.

However, since cultivation resources are limited so the celestial sects among warred among one another for more precious cultivation resources.

In fact, the entire Dragontooth Grand Continent is ruled by powerful celestial sects and the celestial sects are the real kingdoms where the high level cultivators are the kings.

The cultivation realms are: Foundation, Energy Nascent, Soul Nascent, Golden Core, True Origin, Sage Realm, Saint Realm, Empyrean Realm.

Today, Fairy Xuan Xueqi and the 2 other leaders of the Profound Cloud Sect would be presiding over this First Martial Meeting of their branch third year ever since they had vanquished the Thousand Swords Divine Sect.

Fairy Xuan Xueqi was a True Origin expert cultivator, while the other two leaders Hou Tianba and Yu Haixian were both at the True Origin and Golden Core respectively.

Ye Fan could see that Fairy Xuan Xueqi was sitting at the leadership position with Hou Tianba, Yu Haixian and other elders of the Profound Cloud Sect.

Even though Fairy Xuan Xueqi was extremely beautiful and many of the candidates were bewildered with her mesmerizing great beauty but Ye Fan was indifferent to her enticing charms.

It was because 3 years ago, this Witch Xuan Xueqi and killed 3 of the sword elders from the Thousand Swords Sect and even destroyed the entire celestial sect, hence paving the way for the Profound Cloud Sect to take over this place.

And he had thereafter lost his chance of becoming an inner court protégé of the Thousand Swords Sect and also 3 years of cultivation practice.

But he was also mindful that this chance was also given to him by the Witch Xuan Xueqi herself.

So, is she testing him?

Just as he was pondering deeply while looking at Witch Xuan Xueqi, he was startled that she had turned her golden eyes to gaze at him, even though she was sitting far away on the other side of the speculator seat.

This caused Ye Fan to be greatly startled and he could feel the pressure of her divine sense upon him.

Then she merely smiled before she withdrew her presence from him but this was enough to cause him to break into cold sweat.

The disparity of cultivation boundaries between the two of them were simply too vast; while he was only at the first stage of the Foundation cultivation, she was already at the True Origin cultivation and she was 4 huge boundaries above him.

With his current strength now, it was still not enough for him to take on to her and avenge the deaths of his former celestial sect.

But Ye Fan was patient enough to wait for an opportunity to be presented to him.

After all, he had been patient for the past 3 years.

Elder Leader Yu Haixian had suddenly rose to his feet and he had displayed his profound voice to say in a loud thundering echo to everyone, "It is now time for our First Martial Meeting to start now."

Then he lifted his fingers to point at the warped shimmering blue portal that had suddenly opened at the entrance of a cave.

"There will be a series of trials that you have to overcome in order to prove your qualifications to join the Profound Cloud Sect. Among all of you, only 8 will be selected to be an inner court protégé while 30 of you will be chosen to be an outer court protégé."

"Let me warn all of you again that no profound treasures can be brought inside the trial or else you will have to face the consequences of your actions…"

But before he could finish, Fairy Xuan Xueqi had suddenly flashed in the midst of the candidates and with several display of her sword fingers, she had caused 10 of the candidates to vomit blood and there were even 5 outer court protégés among them as they all collapsed onto the ground, either dead or severely wounded.

In the next blink of an eye, she had returned to her seat and she merely said nonchalantly, "Only normal swords and no profound treasures can be brought inside the trial. Do we have to make it clear to all of you?"

Ye Fan was startled that this Witch Xuan Xueqi was too ruthless in her executions!

Without a doubt, she was a scourge of the righteous cultivators.

On paper, the Profound Cloud Sect was an orthodox celestial sect and even the Thousand Swords Divine Sect was an orthodox celestial sect as well. But the Profound Cloud Sect had accused the Thousand Swords Divine Sect of practicing the forbidden yin-yang profound art and had destroyed it.

This was their righteous claim for destroying the thousands of years of heritage of the Thousand Swords Divine Sect simply because the Profound Cloud Sect was a superior cultivation holy land and they simply wanted to annex the Thousand Swords Divine Sect into one of their mere branches.

It was no secret to the villages of the Thousand Swords Divine Sect that the 7 sword elders and also leaders of the Thousand Swords Divine Sect were all kind and highly respected cultivators.

Therefore, this accusation by the Profound Cloud Sect could not be taken as proof and moreover, the Witch Xuan Xueqi did not leave behind any of the 7 sword elders alive to dispute this claim.

Elder Leader Yu Haixian had now announced once again, "Minus the 10 candidates, may the rest of the 850 candidates please go into the trial portal for your testing."

When he had said that, numerous candidates began to make their way into the trial portal.

A big bulwark man saw Ye Fan and he started to smile at him, "I am Jin Yizhong. What is your name?"

"Ye Fan."

"You look like a strong candidate and so am I. So shall we group together…"

But Ye Fan simply ignored him and made his way into the trial portal.

He had no need of any friends because he carried a heavy burden in his heart; 3 years ago, he had also found 1 of the dying sword elders and he had tearfully clutched his hands tightly, "Avenge me… and the Thousand Swords Divine Sect… kill the Witch Xuan Xueqi…"