Breakthrough to the Energy Nascent

As soon as Ye Fan had entered into the shimmering blue portal, he saw that he was in a forest with hundreds of other candidates.

The voice of Elder Leader Yu Haixian could be heard proclaiming throughout the vicinity, "Good. You are all inside the trial now. Now let me tell you what you should do. Deep inside this forest, is a bridge to the other side. As long as you can reach to the other side of the bridge, you will qualify to go to the next trial."

He paused for it to sink in before he announced, "You have 2 hours to reach the next trial. Now go!"

Many of the candidates had immediately rushed deep into the forest when Elder Leader Haixian had announced the start of the trial.

Ye Fan was also among the ones that were rushing forward.

There were many paths in the forest and Ye Fan picked a random trail to move himself into.

"Brother Ye Fan!"

It was Jin Yizhong and it seemed that he had picked the same path as him to go to.

Ye Fan did not respond to him and instead, he continued to use his sword to cut his way into the forest.

However Jin Yizhong did not give up and he continued to follow him.

This somehow annoyed Ye Fan a little as he turned back to say, "I am sure that you know and that's why you are following me?"

Jin Yizhong was forced to admit, "Yes. I know Brother Ye Fan from 3 years ago. At that time, you have won the most outstanding candidate for the protégé testing and you were even selected to be an inner court protégé for the Thousand Swords Divine Sect. So I figure out that if I follow you then I may be able to at least complete a few of the trials for this First Martial Meeting. I really want to be an outer court protégé and be a cultivator."

Ye Fan said coldly, "There is actually no future in being an outer court protégé and outer court protégés are simply cannon folder…"

At that time the Thousand Swords Divine Sect had more than 1000 outer court protégés and more than 900 of them were all killed, often instantly.

It was said that the Witch Xuan Xueqi had killed more than 100 of the outer court protégés herself.

Jin Yizhong protested immediately, "But this is better than being a helpless servant to the celestial sect, am I right to say so?"

Ye Fan was forced to admit he was right.

Those that could not be even outer court protégés were all the servants and forced labors of the celestial sects, with their primary purposes to do with providing food and building the beautiful palaces of the celestial sects.

Ye Fan continued to move into the forest and Jin Yizhong was following him.

He did not stop Jin Yizhong anymore but he did not acknowledge his companion either.

It was because Ye Fan was a loner and he was too used to being alone.

His obsession with the Witch Xuan Xueqi ran deep and she was like his heart demon.

All of a sudden there was a profound beast that had suddenly emerged from the forest!

This profound beast was a wolf like profound beast of a considerable great size and it was called the Dire Wolf. Usually, a Dire Wolf was a rank 1 profound beast.

But this one, was much larger and it was a King Dire Wolf and it was a rank 2 profound beast and a King Dire Wolf was never alone; it was accompanied by 8 Dire Wolves behind.

Jin Yizhong had completely freaked out; it was because in normal circumstances, even a rank 1 Dire Wolf was enough to tear apart an earth-step foundation cultivator. Moreover, there was a King Dire Wolf that was stronger than even a heaven-step foundation cultivator.

Because Ye Fan was the closest to the encounter, King Dire Wolf had made him into its first target and attacked him.

Jin Yizhong seized the opportunity to escape as fast as he could by reversing away, "Ye Fan! You are really a jinx! I shouldn't have followed you in the first place!"

Ye Fan raised his sword to block the strong attack of the King Dire Wolf but the block had also caused him to slam hard onto a tree.

Even though he was a heaven-step foundation cultivator but his profound strength was still not enough to deal with this King Dire Wolf.

This was not lost on Jin Yizhong and the last thing that he witnessed from this battle was that Ye Fan was being slammed hard onto a tree and from the look of it, he was going to become meat for the hungry Dire Wolves soon.

He could only mutter a soft prayer, "May your soul finds comfort with the other pitiful souls…"

The King Dire Wolf attacked Ye Fan again and even though Ye Fan had slashed against its body but its black fur was almost impervious to his attack!

Ye Fan gritted his teeth as he forced his profound strength to the limit and all of a sudden, there was a slight golden animus around him as he had a sudden breakthrough to the half-step of the Energy Nascent Stage!

Actually, his cultivation breakthrough was almost immediate after he had consumed the Golden Lotus Natal Pill but he had suppressed his breakthrough as the Witch Xuan Xueqi was presented that night and also thereafter since he did not want to make it so obvious to her.

But today, he had a life and death battle that forced him to enter into the Energy Nascent Stage as he needed more profound strength to defeat this King Dire Wolf.

Almost immediately after his breakthrough, he had pieced the forehead of the attacking King Dire Wolf, killing it instantly.

Next he flashed to the midst of the Dire Wolves and killing another 4.

The other 4 Dire Wolves immediately fled the vicinity.

In the speculator stands of the arena, the 3 elder leaders, numerous elders and inner court protégés of the Profound Cloud Sect were watching the trial through the multiple battle imageries that were flashing in the arena.

And they were startled to see that one of the candidates suddenly had a cultivation breakthrough to the Energy Nascent Stage and many of them were shocked to see it happening in combat.

Even Fairy Xuan Xueqi was startled to witness it and she was even more startled that she had actually known this low level cultivator and he was Ye Fan.

She muttered to herself, "Ye Fan? It is him?"

However she was not just surprised at his cultivation breakthrough but the way he fought was extremely seasoned and all his strikes were also precise. It was as though he had no room for mistakes.

Although the swordplay that he had displayed was a foundation swordplay but he had adapted it far better than anyone else.

"Ye Fan… mmm… interesting… did he or did he not take my Golden Lotus Natal Pill that night?"