The Trial Rules of the Third and Final Trial

"Now for the start of the third trial… please enter the portal that will be appearing in front of you…"

The profound voice of the Elder Leader Yu Haixian was now declaring above the arena.

A shimmering blue portal had also appeared in the middle of the arena.

All the candidates began to walk slowly into the shimmering portal.

About 50% of them were walking faltering; their injuries were not light at all. The trial of the jade sword had been too brutal for some of them.

Ye Fan slowly walked into the shimmering portal.

Soon, he found himself in a forest that was similar to the first trial but many of the candidates seem to be missing and there seemed to be a lot lesser candidates than in the arena.

The profound voice of Elder Leader Yu Haixian was heard echoing, "This is the third and final trial. We have divided you into two main teams of 110 each. 8 of you will be selected to be inner court protégés and 30 of you will be selected outer court protégés. If you are already an outer court proteges, then you don't count toward the 30…"

"… You will all be given a badge from one of the bronze, silver and gold that will be attached to your chest. Similarly, your opponents will also be an apparition and their badges will be displayed in full view for you…"

"… The first 40 of you from the second trial will be given the gold badge and there will be 20 of you in each team…"

"The next 70 of you will be given a silver badge and there will be 35 of you in each team…"

"As for the remaining 110 of you, you will be given a bronze badge and there will be 55 of you in each team…"

"Killing an opponent with the gold badge will be worth 10 points, silver badge will be worth 5 points and killing a bronze badge will be worth 2 points…"

"The starting area where you spawn will be your safe area where the opposite team cannot enter. So if you have chickened out or you think that you have enough points, you can stay inside the starting area…"

"The trial shall start 10 minutes after you got your badges and you got 3 hours before the trial ends. So good luck to all of you…"

Ye Fan saw that he got a gold badge as it floated in front of him before attaching to his chest.

He saw that Chen Yuyan was also with him in the same team and she got a bronze badge.

As for Jin Yizhong, he was not in their team so he should be in the opposing team.

Ye Fan estimated that he should have a silver badge.

There were several large commotions among the candidates and there were also many that have a frightful looks on them.

"This is a kill trial. We have to score as many points as possible…"

"We don't know when enough is enough, so we have to keep killing for all…"

"Only 8 inner court protégés will be selected…"

"In order to be the top 8 candidates, we have to kill as many of the opposing team as possible…"

"You are wrong on this. Only the gold badges are worth a lot of points. So, we have to kill as many gold badges as possible. There are 20 of them so we can get 200 points if we can kill them all…"

"That's right! We don't need to kill so many of the bronze badges and we can simply target the gold or the silver badges…"

"That is a good strategy…"

"Kill the gold and silver badges…"

Ye Fan was shaking his head now; it was because this trial was too ruthless when compared to the previous martial meeting when he had become the most outstanding candidate.

The Profound Cloud Sect's use of such a severe trial strategy simply serves to highlight how ruthless its leadership was.

This only serve to steel his heart in killing the Witch Xuan Xueqi to avenge for the Thousand Swords Divine Sect.

Chen Yuyan had suddenly approached him, "Brother Ye Fan, I am afraid. I really want to be an outer court protégé at the very least but this trial seems a little hard."

Ye Fan was a loner but when the pleading looks of Chen Yuyan were asking him for help, his heart melted especially when she had called him Brother Ye Fan in such a sweet manner.

Against his better judgement, he said quietly. "Just follow me. I'll take the lead. But if we see any gold badges, we must turn back immediately!"

Chen Yuyan was startled, "Why Brother Ye Fan? Shouldn't we aim to kill the gold badges to score in this trial?"

Ye Fan smiled bitterly, "Some of the martial skills of the gold badges are not beneath me. In fact, they may even be stronger than me. Therefore, it is actually suicide if we pit against them."

It was true, especially for some of the outer court protégés that have even received a profound martial cultivation or two. And some of them were even in the energy nascent level like Ye Fan too!

Chen Yuyan nodded and smiled, "I get it now. We just need to kill the small fishes instead of the big fishes."

Ye Fan blinked his eyes when he had heard Chen Yuyan: Fishes?

All of a sudden, a gold badge male candidate by the name of Bai Tianyu said to everyone in a heroic mannerism, "Everyone, the 10 minutes that are given to us is not for us to discuss how strong or how weak your opponents are. It is for us to form our attack teams instead!"

"To form our attack teams? What for?"

There were some confusions among the candidates now.

Bai Tianyu said loudly to everyone, "Do you think that you will survive better alone or in a group? Do you think that our opponents will be fighting alone? If we go into this forest alone, then I can tell you that this is a suicide!"

When he had said that, many of the candidates were nodding in approval.

"He is right…"

"We should form our attack teams as well…"

"It is safer in numbers…"

"Let's do this instead…"

Ye Fan quietly said to Chen Yuyan, "He is smart but he also has a motive. In a group, he won't get easily injured and moreover, he can hide his gold badge behind the others until he can get close to his kill. If he is alone, then he will have a harder time trying to get a kill."

Chen Yuyan asked curiously, "But won't our opponents be scared off by the presence of a bigger group instead?"

Ye Fan answered with an analytical mind, "These gold badges won't be picking the team with a lot of gold or silver. They will pick the team with the most bronze badges instead…"

Chen Yuyan blinked her eyes, "Why?"

Ye Fan said nonchalantly, "Because they can score the points instead."

As he said that, many of the candidates were already starting to look form a team hastily.

And Bai Tianyu had picked a team with 6 bronzes and 1 silver to join, smiling to them. "May I join your team? I believe that I can help the team to better survive in the forest…"

Many of the gold badge candidates were either alone or picked a weaker team, almost never grouping together except for two gold badge candidates who seemed to know each other.

Chen Yuyan was quite awed by Ye Fan's analysis, "Brother Ye Fan, you are so smart. You are indeed right."

Ye Fan simply smiled back but said nothing.