The 2 hours of time for the first trial was now up.
Out of the 850 candidates for the first trial, only 440 had survived for the second trial; almost of the candidates were either killed or had given up at the bridge of chains.
Another blue shimmering portal had now appeared.
Elder Leader Yu Haixian's profound voice could be heard, "Go inside the portal for the second trial."
Ye Fan had now got up from his meditating and he was followed closely behind by Chen Yuyan and Lin Yingxiong.
He soon found himself in a weird place with the other candidates and thousands of jade-colored swords that were taller than the trees in the forest earlier were mushrooming from the ground.
Elder Leader Yu Haixian voice could be heard above them, "There are 440 of you that have made it to the second trial…"
"In this trial, you have to pick a jade sword and enter it. Inside, you will meet an apparition of your other opponent. While this is not the same as actually fighting against one another but it is almost the same. That is because you can die inside…"
When he had said that, everyone was startled; they have to fight each other?
That means that only 220 will actually survive in this trial.
The profound voice of Elder Leader Yu Haixian laughed above them, "Lucky the numbers are even in this trial or we will have 1 lucky candidate that need not have to fight to qualify for the next trial…"
Everyone could sense that this Elder Leader Yu Haixian was being quite sarcastic.
"…You can choose to give up this trial at any given time just by running back to the exit… if you still have the strength to run to it, of course…"
Everyone: …
"Now go!"
Ye Fan immediately walked to the jade sword that was the closest to him.
He took a moment to look at his surroundings first and saw that once a candidate had entered a jade sword, this jade sword could glow dim and no other could enter the jade sword any longer.
Having noted this, he started to examine the jade sword in front of him and saw a door size portal.
With just a short hesitation, he began to walk into it.
He soon found himself in a shadowy room and saw that on the other side was also a portal, except that it was a dark portal.
He did not need to wait for too long before he saw an apparition of someone walking out of the dark portal.
Ye Fan immediately knew that it was a copy of a candidate somewhere from among the jade swords.
He could not see the face or the gender as this apparition was shadowy and had a shadowy sword as well.
By all accounts, it may look like Ye Fan was fighting an apparition and not a real person but this was just a false impression.
Ye Fan understood that he was in fact, fighting a 'real' person and he or the apparition could also die in this place.
The real person was merely disguised into an apparition because the Trial Master did not want the surviving candidates to bear grudge against each other in the future.
And also, they could not see the blood of each other and it was also to prevent them from communicating with each other.
Also, the apparition would all appear to be of the same height and sexless, making identification difficult.
The only way it was possible for an apparition to be identified was for a unique profound art to be displayed but it was actually not possible for most of the candidates who lacked any cultivation profound arts, including Ye Fan.
Ye Fan could say many things to this apparition but it would all appear to be silent because the apparition simply could not be able to hear anything.
It was a no mercy fight.
The only way for him or the apparition to give up was to run back to the portal where they had appeared from.
Ye Fan knows how this trial was supposed to work because 3 years ago, he had found himself in a similar trial.
The apparition quickly raised his sword to fight Ye Fan and he was determined to kill him to go to the next trial.
This trial could be said to be extremely cruel, forcing the candidates to fight or to kill each other.
Usually, this trial would appear at the very last because the Trial Master did not want to lose most of his candidates to in-fighting and to save the surviving talents for the next time.
Needless to say, Ye Fan had found the methods of the Profound Cloud Sect to be extremely ruthless and he did not like this celestial sect that he was in, especially the Witch Xuan Xueqi despite her peerless great beauty.
The apparition had charged at him, making the first move.
But Ye Fan simply step aside as he gave a slash with his sword on the apparition's back.
This caused the apparition to seemingly howl silently as it staggered to the ground.
Ye Fan had slashed the apparition's back with great precision; it was not a fatal blow and it was enough to cause a terrible injury.
The apparition thinking that Ye Fan was about to make another fatal attack at him, immediately fled to the dark portal.
Ye Fan did not stop the apparition as his aim of defeating his opponent had already been completed.
A blue shimmering portal to the next trial soon opened in front of him.
Ye Fan quietly walked into this shimmering portal.