After killing the Dire Wolves, Ye Fan continued his way into the forest.
But he soon heard loud screams from all over the forest; it was because there were no safe areas in the forest.
This was a trial and there were dangers that were abound everywhere.
3 years ago, he had already understood this.
There was some safety in numbers but it was not absolute because some candidates may break into a run without even warning the others at the back.
To become a cultivator, everyone had their own little selfish thoughts.
All of a sudden, there was a feminine scream in front of him.
And Ye Fan rushed forward to take a look.
In front of him, a young maiden and a young man were trying to fend off the advance of a huge profound beast with four tenacles in front of its worm like jaws; this was a rank 2 profound beast called the Gruesome Predator and it was a 5 star profound beast, meaning that it was a top profound beast at the rank 2 ranking.
When this Gruesome Predator attacked and rubbed against the thick bark of a tree, it could even damage the tree without any damage to itself!
Ye Fan could only shake his head; it was because with his current cultivation strength, he was still not enough to take the risk to defeat this powerful profound beast.
But he threw a stone at the Gruesome Predator nevertheless and made a dash for it anyway.
The Gruesome Predator was irritated by the sudden attack of the rock that had struck it even though it was unharmed by it.
So, it had turned to chase after Ye Fan instead.
This saved the young maiden and the young man.
Ye Fan had made a mad rush into the forest and the Gruesome Predator was now making a mad rush for him.
This Gruesome Predator was quick and in fact, it could even move quicker than Ye Fan and judging by its speed, it would catch up with Ye Fan in no time at all.
He had only 3 blinks of an eye time!
He clenched his sword tightly as he recalled the powerful sword stroke that was left behind by that forgotten powerful sword cultivator in the tomb and that he had spent the past 3 years meditating on that sword stroke for an insight; that sword stroke contained all the profound power of that senior's one stroke and it could cut deeply into the wall as it pierced through the remains of a golden skeleton.
He inhaled deeply as he attempted to process all the cultivation insights that were contained in the single stroke that the senior sword cultivator in the tomb had once made before abruptly turning around with all his profound strength and striking the Gruesome Predator in the forehead with his sword!
This attack of his pierced the forehead of the Gruesome Predator and to his great astonishment, it had also sent the Gruesome Predator to bounce off away from him with a terrifying scream as it caused it to be flung off.
He was startled but was pleasantly surprised at the same time; he had finally grasped how to display that senior's sword stroke to some degree. Maybe this was due to his new cultivation breakthrough to the Energy Nascent level.
Yet Ye Fan's divine sense warned him that this Gruesome Predator was not dead yet but it did suffer a great deal of pain from his sudden precise attack.
This was good enough for him as the objective of shaking this profound beast off his track had already been made.
And Ye Fan continued on his way deep into the forest again.
Along the way, he could still hear the terrifying screams of the candidates as they were being torn apart by the ferocious profound beasts that were in the forest.
After almost an hour later, he saw a 'bridge' to the other side and there were already two dozen candidates that were already there.
He could be considered one of the earliest but not the earliest.
Ye Fan saw that this so called 'bridge' was in fact just a pair of huge iron chains across to the other side of the cliff where the next trial would start.
The two dozen candidates that were on the other side were all grinning as they pointed at Ye Fan, waiting to see if he would fall to his death in this trial.
The length of this bridge was around 30m in length and it was quite a difficult thing for most candidates to cross; they had to move slowly across the chain by crawling and holding onto it tightly.
But Ye Fan simply inhaled deeply and he had flashed across the thick iron chains as though he was running on a normal bridge and in just 3 blinks of an eye, he had made his way across to the other side!
This simply astonished all the two dozen candidates that were on the other side for they had all taken more effort than him.
"He is wearing an outer court robe of the Profound Cloud Sect so he isn't a beginner?"
"I don't remember seeing him in the Profound Cloud Sect…"
"I know him. He is Ye Fan…" One of the candidates was actually an outer court protégé and he had suddenly recognized him.
"3 years ago, he used to be the most outstanding new protégé of the Thousand Swords Divine Sect's martial meeting…"
Among the two dozen candidates here, 10 of them were actually an existing outer court protégé of the Profound Cloud Sect and they had joined the martial meeting in the hope that they may advance as an inner court protégé.
Ye Fan did not say anything as he sat down in meditation.
In the meantime, as the time passed by, more and more candidates had emerged from the forest.
Many of them were daunted by the chain bridge; some simply could not cross and many had fallen to their deaths when they have lost their grip.
Among them the candidates that survived the crossing of the bridge were the young maiden and young man that Ye Fan had saved.
The two of them had spotted Ye Fan and they had approached Ye Fan.
The young maiden made a cute expression at Ye Fan, "I am Chen Yuyan. Thank you for saving us just now."
"I am Lin Yingxiong. Brother, thank you for saving the two of us just now. May we know the name of this brother here?"
"Yeah!" Chen Yuyan smiled, "Maybe we are even the protégés of the same celestial sect in the future too!"
Ye Fan saw that they looked quite friendly so he replied weakly, "Ye Fan."
Lin Yingxiong smiled, "Alas! So it is Brother Ye Fan here. Nice to meet you here. From now onward, we will be brothers!"
Chen Yuyan smiled coyly, "My Brother Lin Yingxiong here is really very friendly and I am glad to have Brother Ye Fan too!"
Ye Fan smiled as he nodded lightly.
But his attention was quickly diverted when he spotted Jin Yizhong emerging from the forest and he was now attempting to cross the bridge of chains.
Because Jin Yizhong was strongly built, he quickly made his way across in no time and it had taken him only 30 blinks of an eye.
Just when he was grinning proudly to himself, he had spotted Ye Fan and he had quickly looked away in guilt.
Ye Fan was not bothered by Jin Yizhong betrayal; it was because they were not friends in the first place.